Steven Alternate Universe: A Momswapped fanfiction
by 1902
Summary: This fanfic features a RoleSwap for the Homeworld Gems, only that they take in the role of being the Crystal Gems. This fanfic is also a "What if?" for the said characters, same situation, but different characters, for you to see on how they would react. Rated T for upcoming chapters. (Title name suggested by: Fanfic writer 117) [Steven Universe is still Rose Quartz's son here.]
1. Gem Glow

A small, chubby boy with a reddish-pink T-shirt with star on it, shouts "NO!" for a second, after finding out his favourite treat, Cookie Cat, were out of stock in a small convenience store named "Big Donut".

"This must be a dream!" He runs towards the two employees, one as a tall, but slim teenager named "Lars", and a chubby, short female called as "Sadie"; they both work in the shop. The small boy hugged Lars.

"Lars, LARS! Please, tell me I'm dreaming!" He said, whining as Lars gets annoyed by his whining.

"Steven get off me, I am stuck in here," He groans, and gets away from Steven, as he walks to stock up on the Donuts while holding a box infront of him. Steven falls as he loses his grip, and falls flat face-first.

"I'm sorry, Steven," Sadie leans on the counter while giving him an apologetic look. "I guess they stopped making them, and someone bought all of them."

Steven stood up quickly in surprise, " _SOMEONE_ bought all of them!?" He glanced at her, worried about his treats, "Why would someone buy all of the most delicious and scrumptious of the ice cream sandwich ever made?" He kneels down and spread his arms wide, while looking up. "WHO BOUGHT THEM!?" He whines, as no one answers his question.

Lars sighs as he puts down the box and said, "Tough bits man; Nobody buys them anymore," He pulls out a bag of chips from the box and glances at the refrigerators, "I guess they couldn't compete with _Lion Lickers_."

Steven glances at the fridge and groans as he walks towards it, "Not _Lion Lickers_ , nobody likes them!" He points at one of the messy ice cream pieces that barely look like lions in general. "They even don't look like lions, _kids these days_ , I tell you what."

Lars stands up and smirks at him as he leans on the counter, "Well, if you miss your wimpy ice cream so much, why don't you make some with your _magic belly button_!" And he laughs as he walks off.

Steven blushes, "That's not how it works, Lars," He said in embarrassment, and he glances at his stomach, "Right?" He lifts up his shirt, revealing his gem, located on his navel; He jiggles his stomach to test his gem, and sighs in defeat. He walks up to the empty _Cookie Cats_ fridge.

"Oh _Cookie Cats_ ," He closes his eyes to mourn the disappearance of his treat, and puts his hand on the counter. "With your crunchy outside, your icy, creamy insides," He feels sad, as he draws the _Cookie Cats_ icon on the freezer, and he leans on it. "You're too good for this world." And he kisses it.

Sadie, on the other hand, raises one of her eyebrows in confusion from seeing Steven hug the small freezer for a full 5 seconds, "Uh, Steven?" She pauses for a second, still confused by the small boy being sad, and Lars also looks at Steven in confusion, having the same expression as Sadie, "Are you going to take that freezer with you?" And Steven nods while biting his lip to avoid crying. She sighs, "Okay then, and take it with you. It's already out of stock anyway." She shrugs, and Steven unplugs the freezer, and coils it up to make it a sling backpack, and slowly walks out of the shop.

"Did one of his _friends_ buy them all, right?" Lars asked, and Sadie nods.

"Yeah, it was yesterday, one of them _stole_ all of the ice cream sandwiches, and her other friend paid for it," She glances up at him, and she notices him, starry-eyed from his thought of the _Orange-colored figure_ taking all of them with her other friend.

"And yeah, that _buff_ woman with her blue-colored looking friend," He smiles from his statement, and Sadie walks off to the storage room as she yawns.

"Cover my shift, I'll take a rest by the storage room," And Lars groans in annoyance, muttering something about " _too much work_ ".

* * *

Steven was getting out of the shop with the freezer on his back, but suddenly heard what both Lars and Sadie said something about his _friends_.

"The _Orange_ person with her _Blue_ colored friend?" He taps his chin and looks at his house from far away, and he realizes, "That must be _Jasper_ and _Lapis_!" He grinned, and runs toward his house while humming a familiar tune. His house has a huge statue of the _huge_ figure with six eyes, and four arms as it sits behind the wooden house. He gets to stand infront of the door, seeing through a blurry screen from the door.

He opens up the door with his one hand, "Hey guys, you won't believe this-" And he was cut off by a huge Centipeedle looking figure, knocking him down. He panics as it tries to eat him, while putting it away with his arms. He screams in terror and closes his eyes, but he hears water splashing, and he opens his left eye, seeing water knock over the figure, and it screams in pain as the water keeps drowning it. He glances at the blue, slim figure infront of him in a distance.

"Hey Steven, how's everything?" Lapis Lazuli said, as she salutes him. She pulls the water that has captured the evil gem that previously tried to eat him, and it flies off over a Green, robotic figure using her two arm cannons to fire at the two, huge Centipeedles coming after her, but she finally got to defeat them as they get knocked off from the blast she shot off, having them fly away again in the air, and they poof up in a cloud of smoke. One of them had been grabbed by an orange looking figure with streaks of orange on her face and arms, having her nose as her gem. She summons her huge helmet with a visor, and headbutts the struggling creature infront of her. She punches off the remaining enemies, and one of them landed ontop of her head, so she took it off her helmet, and snapped it in two, having it poofed.

Steven surveys everything that is around him, and he still sees a lot of the green-colored creatures messing with his stuff. Lapis is chasing off the other creatures with water hovering over her, the orange figure walking off to check for more of them, and the green looking figure pulling them off from the couch; However, he is pretty amazed by what he is seeing, "Awesome!" He stares at the Centipeedle passing by, grinning by the display, "What are these things?" And she hears a squeaky, high-pitched voice groaning from exhaustion, she glances at him while hugging the Centipeedle infront of her.

"Sorry Steven, we'll get these little clods out of your room," She frowns at him, but the Centipeedle struggles and squirms, giving her a hard time holding it due to her floating fingers, "They think they're trying to get into _The Temple_."

Steven walks up to her, "Aw, you don't have to get rid of them," He said, oblivious of their threats. He smiles, "They're really cool!" But he jumps back as the Centipeedle spits out acid, making a hole on the wooden floor below them. They both looked down at the damage, and he stares at it, surprised from it.

The other one was thrown into the wall, grunting in pain from the water splashing it, increasing the damage on it, and it poofed. Lapis runs toward the wall, now staring where the creature used to be, but she realizes all of them don't have gems.

"Uh, _Jasper_ and _Peridot_? These Centipeedles don't have gems," She places the water on the empty aquarium, saving it for later. Both Peridot and Steven glance at her; Jasper also walks up to them.

"Looks like there is that _stupid_ mother nearby," Jasper grits her teeth, and punches the lunging Centipeedle beside her. Peridot gets offended by her use of language.

" _Language_ , Jasper!" She uses her free hand to point at Steven, "We have a _child_ to raise, right?"

"Yeah, that Quartz child, I always forget," And she kneels down on one knee infront of Steven, glancing at him, "Don't worry, I'll remember next time." And she smiles at Steven in reassurance, making him nod.

Peridot taps her chin, "We should look for its mother, before anyone gets hurt," And this made Steven excited, thinking that he has another adventure to spend with the _Crystal Gems_.

"Oh, can I come?" He grins as he repeatedly glances at both Jasper and Peridot, but Peridot gives him a concerned look once he glances at her.

"Steven, until you learn to control the powers your mother gave you, we'll take care of protecting humanity," And she flings the Centipeedle upward, and shoots it with her cannon without looking, making it poof. "Okay?" She smiles at him, but he frowns as he looks down.

"Aw," But he hears a creature investigating their refridgerator, and he gasps. "HEY, GET OFF THERE!" He runs towards it, and shoos him off the fridge, "Shoo, shoo!" And he glances at the surroundings around him, "Aw, they got everything, that's not cool!" And he glances at the freezer, revealing a stack of _Cookie Cats_ ice cream sandwiches, along with the homemade ice cream sandwiches beside the stacks of them. He gasps in surprise and glee. "No way… I knew Lars and Sadie were right about it!" And he took one of the treats of the freezer; Peridot closes the freezer door.

"Where did you get these? I thought they stopped making them," He glances at her, and then she sighed.

"Well, we heard that too, and since they're your favourite, we got them all," She said, and Lapis sits on the counter, and Jasper standing next to Steven.

"We went out and stole _all_ of them!" Lapis said, grinning. This also sets Peridot into groaning.

"I went back and _paid_ for them," She rolls her eyes, "Next time be civilized you clods…" She mutters under her breath.

"Language, Peridot." Jasper sneers, and Peridot groans again.

"Nevermind," She pinches her bridge of her nose, then sighs. "And we have found a way to make the homemade versions of those."  
"Yeah, we had to get help from Greg during _that_ time," Lapis chuckles, "It was a mess when we were trying to make them, also to mention that you were still sleeping at that time."

"And that was my whole idea." Jasper said, and her helmet slowly disappears.

"It was everyone's idea," Lapis glanced at her.

"Not really," Jasper replied.

"But what all that matters, is that our Steven is happy," And she ruffles his hair, and he laughs.

"Come on!" Steven tries to put away her hand, and she did. He stared at Peridot for a second, confusing her. And suddenly, he breaks out into a song.

" _Oohhhh!_

 _He's a frozen treat with an all new taste!"_ And Peridot is even more confused, but hides it and smiles at him.

" _'cause he came to this planet from outer space!_

 _A refugee of an interstellar war!"_ Peridot glances at Lapis, and then she saw her sticking her tongue out at her, so she rolls her eyes again as her response.

" _But now he's at your local grocery store!_

 _Cookie Cat!_

 _He's a pet for your tummy!_

 _Cookie Cat!_

 _He's super duper yummy!_

 _Cookie Cat!_

 _He left his family behind!_

 _Cookie Caaaaaat!_

 _Now available at Gurgins off Rt. 109!"_ Steven finishes rapping, and everyone breaks out into a chuckle.

"I can't believe you did this," Steven said, smiling at her, "I'll have to save these forever, but after I eat this one." And he opens up the packet, pulls out the cookie, and crumples up the packet, "Hello, old friend." And he takes a bite off his cookie by the ear, relishing the taste of the crunchy, yet chewy treat. And suddenly Peridot notices the gem on his navel, glowing. And both Jasper and Lapis notice too, but Steven is still oblivious, "I like to take the ears off first."

"Uh, Steven? Your gem is glowing, you should summon a weapon!" Lapis said, and he took notice of the flow, so he panics by the fact that the glow is fading.

"Ah, it's fading, how do I make it come back!?" He asks in desperation.

"Steven, calm down, please," She said, "And don't try to force it." And she sees Steven holding his breath to calm down.

"Yeah, and don't try to pee yourself either," Lapis said, and Peridot groans again.

"Quartz child, don't." Jasper said as Steven's gem glow fades, and everyone sighs in disappointment, including Steven himself; he sits down on the floor in despair.

"Aw, I was really close that time," And he straightens his packet and returns the cookie back inside it. He glances at the other Crystal Gems, "Can one of you just explain on how to summon a weapon?" He asks them, and Peridot suddenly eager to teach Steven on how to summon his weapon; she raises her hand.

"Oh, I'll go first!" She exclaimed, and Lapis shrugs.

"If you say so, Peridot. You teach him first," And both Lapis and Jasper walk off towards the huge, metal door that is behind the Warp Pad, and they open it up using their gems, and they both walk inside the doorway, and it closes.

Both Steven and Peridot are both standing next to the small garden, which has an abundance of Roses, both White and Red in their colour. The weather is currently windy, making some of the petals fly away from the wind. Steven looks around his surroundings, but his attention was caught by Peridot clearing her throat, ready to teach him on how to summon his weapon.

* * *

"Pay attention to these petals, Steven," She slightly raises her arm for her teaching stance, "The petals' dance seems improvised, but according to my observation," She uses her four fingers to make a holographic screen, showing Steven a video of the petals falling down, "It is calculated in real time, based on the physical properties of this rocky planet." She said, and closes the holographic screen. "With hard work and dedication, you can master the magical properties of your gem, and perform your own dance!" And she focuses her floating, metal fingers on her gem, revealing a green, spherical-shaped object with a wick on top, and she throws it upwards, and shoots it with her arm cannon, having Steven be amazed by the display as it explodes in a puff of smoke and shrapnel.

"Woah…" He said in astonishment, starry-eyed.

"Well, I don't summon my weapon much, due to me using a lot of technology more than magic, and by the fact that I use the bomb to clear up paths. But I hope you understand, Steven," She said, and Steven nods. He stands up and turns around as he is about to start walking, but he stops.

"Peridot?" He turns to her, and she turns around so face him again.

"Yes, Steven?" And she kneels down on one knee to meet his height.

"Can I have the petals?" He asked, and she taps her chin.

"I don't see why not," She finally said, and she lets him scoop up a bunch of petals, and he runs off.

"Thanks, Peridot!" He said, and she waves at him goodbye, leaving her to learn more about earth in her fingertips, literally.

* * *

Steven is hanging out with Lapis Lazuli by the Big Donut, while she is drinking soda; Steven is trying to "summon" his weapon. He struggles to do so, even though he threw the petals over and over again. Lapis took note of this.

"Ugh, did Peridot tell you about the 'petals' thing?" She asked, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, so I could dance like a tree and summon my weapon," He said, and glances at her. "Why?"

"Eh, I guess she got it all wrong," She takes a sip. "You see, summoning your weapon is not all about throwing fancy stuff and being complicated, you just have to feel like it _happens_." She finished, and she sprouts her water wings out of her gem on her back, and uses the water wings to lift the soda. "See?" And she takes another sip. Steven sighs as he looks away.

"I'll ask Jasper."

* * *

"Are you asking me on how to summon your weapon, Quartz Child?" Jasper asked, and she chuckles.

"Yeah, seriously. because Peridot told me about the petals so I can dance like a tree," He said, but this sets off on Jasper laughing even more, "Why?" He asks.

"It made me seriously think that gem would actually think of you doing a dance to summon your shield," She said, shedding off a tear from laughing too hard. "You see, summoning your weapon is both feeling effortless and concentrating at the same time, you just have to _imagine_ it," and she spawns her gem helmet. "Like this, see?"

Unfortunately, this left Steven even more confused, "So, I have to try my best and feel lazy at the same time?"  
"Exactly, Quartz child," She nodded, and Steven groans as he lies down on the grass.

"This is just like what Lapis said."

"Well, she's right about it," And this got Steven an idea.

* * *

"So, I started from here, right?" Steven stands on the spot he previously stood on at the time he last ate his Cookie Cat, and also spawned his pink shield. He glanced at Jasper and Lapis, who were both in the same positions. And he also looks up to Peridot, who is leaning against the fridge.

"Peridot, you're supposed to stand straight," He said, and Peridot snaps back to reality.

"Oh," She said, and she stands straight, releasing her arm from touching the wall and she puts her arms at her back, smiling at him. He gets the _Cookie Cat_ packet from the freezer, and attempts to sing the _Cookie Cat_ rap he had done in the same day, but fails.

"Aw, I remembered it last time," He frowns, but he takes off the cookie from the packet. "At least I get to eat these," And he takes another bite while closing his eyes. But suddenly, his gem is glowing once more, and it displays a pink shield with a spiral pattern, similar to a rose, and it features a Pink symbol on the center. Everyone is shocked by the display, but Steven doesn't notice until he opens up his eyes.

"WOAH, IS THAT _MY_ SHIELD!?" Steven said, astonished by his weapon.

"Yes, Steven. And you know what it is now," Lapis said, and this gets Steven to be ecstatic.

"OOOOH YEAH!" And his shield is sent flying through the room, and it cuts the top of Peridot's hair in the process, and the shield crashes on the TV.

"Well, that was surprising," Lapis said, then she glances at Peridot, and she suddenly shots up for half a second, before snickering and pointing at her hair. "Jasper, look at Peridot," She snickered as she mutters at Jasper. She took notice, and they both start laughing.

"What's with you two laughing at me?" Peridot asks in confusion, and Steven taps her leg, and she looks down. Her cut hair falling infront of her in a solid mass and she gasps.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HAIR?!" She catches the solid mass infront of her as she checks her head, and Steven laughs.

"My shield sliced your hair, Peridot," he smiles, and she sighs from it.

"At least you know what your weapon is, but you still need to train-"And she was cut off by a loud roar from the outside, and then both Jasper and Lapis immediately ran outside to see a Mother Centipeedle, who was climbing on the statue.

"It's the mother we're looking for all day," She said, and she glances at Peridot, who nods and follows her outside. Peridot glances at Steven.

"Steven," She calls his name. "Unless you know what you are doing, _don't_ go outside," She said, being serious about this.

"Aw come on, I wanted to use my shield!" He attempts to follow them by the outside of the house, but the Gems have already jumped off from it, ready to fight it. Steven went back inside as he hears splashing and crashing, but he didn't mind anyway. So he opened up the freezer door, grabbed for his small, pink freezer off the counter, and stuffed it inside with the ice cream sandwiches, and walks outside with an extension plugged on the small freezer. He runs towards the mother creature, determined to use his powers through _Cookie Cats_. He puts down the small freezer beside him, and opens it up, taking one of the cookies off the freezer.

"Hey big guy, try some of my _magic shield_ powers!" He takes a bite and chews thoroughly, imagining that the shield will actually slice the Mother Centipeedle in two. He raises his shirt to reveal his gem, but he realizes that it's still not showing up, so he finishes the whole thing, and takes more of the ice cream sandwiches, _Come on please work_. He thought.

The three Crystal Gems took notice of what Steven is doing, and Peridot is the first one to be seriously worried about it. She opens up her eyes wide in shock, and fear.

"STEVEN!" And she summons her bomb, throws it at the monster, and shoots the bomb, which is suspended in mid-air. It exploded up into bits of shrapnel, harming the Centipeedle as it knocks downwards to the ground. "Lapis, I need your help with this!" She exclaims at her.

"With what?" She asks, and Peridot points her finger at the water, and then points it to the monster. "You want me to help you shock the Mother Centipeedle?"  
"Just do it."  
"Sure," And she uses her hydrokinesis to wrap the Centipeedle with water, and Peridot shoots a stream of lightning at it, shocking the Centipeedle for 5 seconds. It screams in injury infront of Steven, and it poofs up, displaying a Spherical-shaped gem with a circled-line on it. Steven stares at it in shock as it rolls slowly towards him.  
"Woah," He said, as Jasper walks towards him, picks up the gem, and surrounds it in a bubble. She taps it and the gem is gone in an instant.  
"This is another time Peridot proves herself that she is improving," She smiles, and puts her hands on her hips. Both Lapis and Peridot both run and stop next to Jasper.  
"I am still trying my best, Jasper," She said. "But Lapis also helped me in this."

"I knew what she was going to do. But hey, we still got Steven to teach," Lapis shrugs, and Steven glances at both three of them.

"So, can _Cookie Cats_ still summon my shield?" He asks, and Peridot chuckles as she crouches down infront of Steven.  
"Well, no. But we will do our best to make you become one of us," She smiles in reassurance, and Steven grins with stars on his eyes.  
"Really!?" He asks, ecstatic.  
"Yeah, but it will take some time," She said. "Now you can eat your favourite treat."  
"Yay!" And he feels his stomach rumbling. "Oh no," He doubles over to cover his stomach.  
"What happened?" Lapis asks in concern.  
"My stomach..," He said.  
"This also proves that _Cookie Cats_ won't let your shield reappear, so as having Peridot's hair unable to regenerate," She said.

"LAPIS!" Peridot shouts, and everyone laughs except for her. Steven eventually throws up from laughing too much, and from eating too much _Cookie Cats_.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note: This is my first fanfic posted on this website, so it's acceptable to put in your compliments/reviews over here.**_


	2. Laser Light Cannon

Both Steven and Lapis run towards the _Beach Citywalk Fries_ , as the store is about to close on a sunset. Mr. Fryman gets inside the shop, and both Steven and Lapis stop by the counter.  
"Hey Fryman," He said, putting his hands on the counter as Lapis stands beside him. "Give me the bits!" He exclaimed.  
"Steven," Fryman said, he turns the sign, showing the 'closed' side of it. "The shop is already closed."  
Lapis sighs and said, "Fryman, it would be nice if you could sell Steven the bits." She gives him a faint smile, and he sighs, having to serve one last customer for the day.  
"Okay, this will take time," He said, going towards the kitchen to cook up the French fry bits. Steven pumps his fist in the air in joy.  
"Aw yes! Thanks Lapis!" He exclaimed, looking up at her.  
"What could I do to make my _Beach Summer Fun Buddy_ happy?" She smiles at him as she ruffles Steven's hair, making him laugh. He eventually pushes her hand off as Fryman glances at them  
"Well, I could give you actual fries," He said, and Steven waves his hand and shakes his head at him.  
"Just the bits, please," Steven said, and Fryman passes him the paper bag, finally serving one last costumer for the day. "Thanks!" He said, and he walks towards the shore with Lapis, as they both share the food together.  
"Ah sunset, my favourite time of day," He said, and he gazes at the sky. "When the sun goes down, and the second sun gets bigger and bigger in the sky!" And this sets Lapis into chuckling.  
"Yeah, that big, second sun- Wait what!?" She suddenly snapped and quickly glanced at the sky, seeing an object that is bright as the original star, yellow by its colour, but it has ridges on it. Lapis glances at Steven, who is confused, "We need to go to Jasper."  
"Wait, why?" He asks.  
"That 'second sun' you are talking about isn't a nice sun," And she picks Steven up, leaving his fry bits behind.  
"My fry bits!" He exclaimed, as he was carried by Lapis.  
"Sorry Steven, we have to do something important," And she flies off, and she lands towards the two gems that is Jasper and Peridot. Peridot is the one to use the telescope.  
"This is bad," Jasper said; her hands on her hips. She is squinting her eyes, staring at the "second sun" infront of them.  
"It isn't, as long as we have something powerful, like Rose's Light Cannon," She said, her eye still on the telescope. They both hear the other two landing beside them, but Steven is the one to fall on his face. "Careful with Steven, please."  
"I'm still fine, Peridot," And he stands up.  
"We've seen it-" Lapis said, but she was cut off by Peridot.  
" _We saw_ , actually. And please fix your grammar next time," Peridot snapped back at her.  
"Don't sass me, you young gem," Lapis snaps back again at her, and this gets Peridot to be silent.  
"Nevermind, so what were you two doing?" She asks.  
"I was helping Steven get his fry bits," Lapis replies with slight bitterness on her voice.  
"Lapis _don't_ start up your temper again, it could get worse," Jasper said, and this made Lapis sigh.  
"Geez, fine," Lapis said with even more bitterness on her tone of voice.  
"Guys?" Steven asks with worry.  
"Oh hey, Quartz child. Wanna see it?" Jasper asks Steven, and he becomes starry-eyed.  
"I wanna see it!" And he looks through the telescope. "Woah," He says in amazement, and the ball turns into an eye, and faces at him with its red iris. "It's a giant eyeball, awesome!" He exclaimed with more amazement in him.  
"It's not awesome, it's a red eye!" Peridot cracks her voice while shouting, and this gets Steven to panic.  
"IS IT GOING TO INFECT US ALL!?" He shouts in fear, and gasps, but he was stopped by Lapis.  
"That's Pink Eye, Steven," She corrects him, and then snorts from her act.  
"It's going to destroy us all, Steven. It's going to crush us all with the innocent people in this town!" Peridot gets even more dramatic with her expressions. "We have to stop it."  
"What are we going to do?" Steven asks.  
"We will need Quartz's light cannon for it," Jasper said bluntly.  
"My mom?" He asks again.  
"If Rose were here, and if Pearl wasn't a jealous _clod_ towards Greg, we would have known how to use it, and it would have been so easy." Lapis bitterly said.  
"Who's Pearl?" He gets even more confused.  
"Eh, let's not touch that subject for now," Lapis replied, tapping her chin. "Wait, does Greg have the cannon?"  
"He's my dad, so he might know where my mom's cannon is!" Steven grins, and Jasper smiled from his thinking.  
"Good thinking, Quartz child. Now you go call Greg," She said, and Steven nods, making him leave the area to find for his dad. She finally glances at Lapis. "Get ready," and Lapis grins.  
"WHY ON EARTH WOULDN'T WE, LET'S DO IT!" Lapis shouted, ecstatic, and she lets herself be picked up by Jasper; she gets thrown. Her water wings turn into giant fists mid-air, and she attempts to punch the Eye, but fails, making her fall down to the water. She uses her hydrokinesis powers to get back to Jasper.  
"Let's try again; I think we can crack this before Steven gets the cannon."

* * *

Steven knocks on the door of the van forcefully, attempting to wake up his father, who is sleeping inside the van.  
"Dad, it's me!" He exclaimed through the door, but his dad doesn't respond a single word. He knocks even more, "Are you in there?" He asks. He hits the door again, but with his back. "Wake. Up!" He shouted, "We have to save the world!" He slams on the door again, but his dad doesn't wake up. He climbs on top of the van, and stomps it repeatedly, hoping it would wake him up, but he falls down on the roof, alarming it. He is pretty relieved to wake him up by now, since the door is opening up. It reveals a chubby adult with a white tank top, light blue jeans, and improper tan lines on his body. His name is Greg, by the way.  
"Who's there? I have a waffle iron!" He exclaims as he raises his hand to reveal an actual waffle iron, emphasizing his point.  
"Dad it's me," Steven said, and Greg turns around, staring at him with his weary eyes, and proceeds to silence the car with his car key.  
"Steven?" He asks, squinting his eyes. Steven gets down from the car, and hugs him. "I almost waffled your face! Why are you doing up so late?"  
"What do you mean? The sun just went down an hour ago," Steven said, and Greg's cheeks turn red in embarrassment.  
"Oh, it was a slow day at the car wash," He said. "Anyway, what's up? Wanted to see your old man? Pal around and learn some lessons about life?" He asks, and Steven pulls back his shoulder.  
"No, I need to get the light cannon that belonged to mom, so we can destroy that giant eyeball!" And he points at the huge, red eyeball. His father even notices it. A blue figure flies through the sky, trying to punch the eyeball with her water powers. She even screams at it, then crashes, falling down.  
"Wait, is that a magical thing?" Greg asks, concerned. "The Gems told me not to get involved with the magic stuff, they say it could dangerous."  
"But they need mom's cannon," Steven replied. "You've got to know where it is, like a cave dungeon, or a _cloud fortress_ , or _a rocky cave on the bottom of the ocean!_ " He says dramatically, Greg closes his van door.  
"Well, I don't know about that," He said. "But I know where it might be!"

* * *

They walk towards to the storage shed Greg owns for his unused stuff, and Steven runs towards it.  
"The Magical Storage Unit!" He exclaimed.  
"Not exactly, but you could say there's a bit of magic inside," Greg said, and Steven stares at him in confusion. "Eh, it's just a shed I used to keep things that don't fit in the van," He explains, and lifts up the gate. "If it's anywhere, it would be here," And he steps aside to show the messiest display he has ever made, witnessed by his son. Steven walks towards the boxes and touches some of them, but they fall down.  
"If I'm going in there, I'm gonna need some gear!" He exclaims, and he grabs his flashlight and an old sock, he uses it to make a Flashlight hat, and he ties a cable string around him to make sure he isn't lost in the mess. He glances at his father and said, "Here I go."  
"Good luck, kiddo, you will need it," He said, holding the cable as he stands around, Steven goes inside the mess, and starts finding for the cannon.

* * *

Steven is struggling to find the cannon, but he finds a picture of his father, and mostly what looks like to be his mother, he gasps, and picks it up.  
"Dad, it's not the cannon, but I have found a picture!" He shouted, despite the mess blocking the sound.  
"What picture?" He asks, but loudly.  
"A picture of you, and someone that might be my mom," He said.  
"Oh, that's your mother. She's the one, who showed up to my concert when no one else did," Greg shouted through the mess. "We also hanged out together after that, and she gave up her physical form to bring you into the world," He finishes, as Steven keeps rifling through the mess. "If every porkchop were perfect, _we wouldn't have hotdogs!_ " He shouted, and there was a pink glow on the left of Steven, and he gasped, running towards the glow. It goes stronger as he gets closer, and he pushes off the remaining of the junk to reveal a big, light-pink cannon with a rose shape, and then the glow slowly fades.  
"Dad, I found the cannon!" Steven shouted.  
"Okay, tie it up and tell me if you're ready!" Greg said, and Steven removes the cable from his waist, and starts tying the Pink cannon infront of him. He steps aside to give way.  
"It's ready!" Steven shouted again; the car starts up, and pulls the cannon away from its original spot. And after a few seconds later, the cannon is pulled along with the junk from the shed, and it falls down, except for the cannon.  
"So, how are we going to move it?" Greg asks, as he gets out of his van.  
"Should we look for the cart?" Steven sheepishly replied as he glances around, but he has found the red, small cart. "Nevermind, I found it. We have to put this thing in."  
And so they did, but Steven barely struggles on carrying the cannon to the cart with Greg around, but as they drop it, the cannon breaks the bottom of the cart, and Greg sighs from it.  
"We can still drive with it," And both He and Steven got inside the van, as the cable is already tied around the cart. Greg starts up the van, and starts driving towards the shore. It gets pretty awkward after a minute.  
Greg notices the eyeball is getting redder every minute and he said, "That thing is getting huge!"  
"Can't the van go any faster?" Steven asks with worry, and Greg pushes the accelerator more, trying to make it faster.  
"This is _faster_!" He said, but the van barely moves any faster. Steven raises up one of his father's albums.  
"Don't worry. Come on, let's put on your CD," And Greg stares at him for a full second before blushing.  
"R-really? Come on, you've heard it," He stutters in embarrassment. Steven puts on the CD on the car stereo. And the song plays, as Greg keeps driving.  
" _I know I'm not that tall,_ " the stereo faintly sings on a song. " _I know I'm not that smart."_

"But let me drive my van into your heart, let me drive my van into your heart!" Steven sang along enthusiastically. Greg kept driving while blushing in embarrassment and flattery, as the song keeps on playing.  
 _"I know I'm not that rich  
I'm trying to get my start  
So let me drive my van into your heart  
Let me drive my van into your heart,"_ And they met the gems at the shoreline, Jasper still staring at Lapis, while tapping her chin. But they notice Greg and Steven having the light cannon, and the three gems gasped. Both the humans stopped the song, and got out of the car. Steven runs around the van to wave at them, as he helps his father to move the cannon. Peridot sighs in relief.  
"I told you, Greg has it," She said, and Lapis glances at her while giving her a soft jab at her forearm, making a metallic sound.  
"We all trust Greg too much on this, we know he's a nice guy," Lapis said, smirking at Peridot. But Peridot is still unfamiliar with her motives as she blushes and rolls her eyes at Lapis. She eventually shrugs it off. "Now, let's get the cannon into good use!" She ran towards the two humans moving the cannon, and helps them set it down.  
"Can you at least get it to work!?" Peridot shouted at the three people pondering about on how to activate Rose's light cannon, but she feels the sand being pulled in to the Red Eye, she and Jasper ran towards them. "You have your mother's gem, Steven!"  
"I don't know how I would activate it, Greg has to know!" Steven replied back, and they both looked at Greg. Not noticing the van being carried away by the Red Eye.  
"I don't know guys. _If every porkchop were perfect_ , _we wouldn't have hotdogs_ ," And the glow on the cannon slowly rises; Steven took notice.  
"If every porkchop were perfect, WE WOULDN'T HAVE HOTDOGS!" Steven shouted, and the cannon activates, readying up to be fired, as its petals settle down to be ready for shooting, but the barrel drops down. Steven gasps, and he runs towards it to raise it up. He struggles to carry the heavy thing above him, but the work was relieved by the Crystal Gems, helping him to fire the cannon.  
"Ready," Jasper said, and both Peridot and Lapis said the same quote. The glow gets more intense, and it shoots out a laser beam, hitting the Red Eye, exploding itself to bits. But there are some bits of the Red Eye crashing onto the beach and some crashing onto the water, making a huge mess. Luckily either of them got hurt, except for the property of the Beach City folk, including Mr. Fryman's shop.  
"At least we saved _most_ of Beach City," Lapis said, still staring at the mess in shock.  
"Sorry about that, Mr. Fryman!" Steven shouted at him, who is far away, staring at the mess, and at Steven.  
"WHAT?" He shouted, not hearing what Steven said. Peridot glances at Steven.  
"You knew how to activate this?" She asks Steven, and he shrugs.  
"Tell it to dad, he told me that," He sheepishly grins.  
"The quote about porkchops?" She asks, and Jasper places her hand on Peridot's shoulder.  
"Hotdogs," Jasper said, and she glances at Greg, still slightly teary-eyed from remembering Rose Quartz.  
"Rose," He said, and he sheds a tear with his hand, and then the water suddenly being brought back. Lapis notices the van is being pulled in.  
"Wait, I got the van, Greg," Lapis said, and she uses her water powers to help bring the van back to Greg, and he sighs in relief, turning to her.  
"Thanks Lapis," He said.  
"Now, get your van before it goes to somewhere even worse," And Greg started running towards his van, and pushes it to the sand, now being stationary.

It ends with the cannon settling down, and Jasper stabling its position. Greg sighs as he sits down on one of the debris from the Red Eye, using it as a seat. Steven is sitting beside dad, and Lapis and Peridot talk to each other for a while, before flaring up to a huge argument between them.


	3. CheeseBurger Backpack

Steven is gleefully singing outside, waiting for a postman to deliver the package he ordered. He sits on top of a small rock beside the mailbox.

" _Hey Mr. Postman, Bring me the post, Bring me the post that I love the most!_ " He sang cheerfully, and a postman came around the corner; being noticed by the small boy, Steven gasps in joy, and he runs towards him, and stops. "My song came true! Do you have a package for me today, Jamie?" He asked, bouncing up and down. Jamie puts up his hand.

"Hold on, Let me see what I've got here," He said, rifling through his bag; He raises a loaf of bread off his bag, "Did you order a loaf of bread with a stamp on it?" He asks.  
"No," Steven replied. Jamie looks through his bag again.

"Did you order a _Jerry Summons_ from _R.J. Finkle_?" He asks, holding up a letter.  
"That's not me, I'm Steven," He explained, and this gets Jamie to realize.

"Oh right, _Steven_ ," He looks through his bag again, and he brings up a box. "Here it is, _Steven Universe._ "  
Steven gasps in joy, "This thing is going to help me save the world!"

"Really?" He asks, still wondering from the boy's crazy antics. "It came from _Wacky Sack_ Supply Company."

"Jasper, Peridot, and Lapis think I shouldn't go on magic adventures, because I don't know how to use my gem powers," said Steven.  
Jamie looks at him for a second, "That seems reasonable."

"But there are other ways I can help!" exclaimed Steven.  
Jamie glances at him in curiosity, "With a _Wacky Sack_?"

"Exactly!"  
"You know how you can save _my_ world?" He responds, and then he pulls out the "phone". "Sign here, please," And Steven signs on the device with his signature, and then he puts back the pen. "My boss yells at me if I don't get signatures."

Steven looks up to him, "That's awful." And a glow lights up from his house, and then it fades, "The Crystal Gems are back!" And he takes the box off Jamie, leaving him to stare at the little boy running for his house.  
Jamie now gets curious about Steven's package, "Wait Steven, what is a _Wacky Sack_?" He shouted, but Steven was already inside the house. And what he lays before his eyes is Jasper plucking out the feathers from her messy hair and her hand waving at Steven as if to greet him, Peridot holding up a small statue with a point on the bottom, and her other "hand" holding up her hair, which somehow fell down at one point, so she uses her fingers to hold it up. Lapis tries to support the big egg with a pillow, and wraps it up in water, then freezes it.

"Looks like Steven and I will be eating a big omelette, or a sunny side up when we get to eat," Lapis smiles, then she hears the egg cracking, getting her to gasp in shock, "No, _ang aking itlog!_ " She shouted as she falls on her two knees and hugs the frozen, broken egg. Apparently, Steven doesn't understand what she is saying, and what is going on here; Peridot notices Steven.  
She turns to him, "We fought a giant bird. We're only here for a minute; we have to get back somewhere."

The boy fully opens up in eyes in curiosity, "What? Why?" He asks, still bummed out that they will get on a mission again without him.  
Peridot raises her hand to show the statue, "We have to place this Moon Gata statue on the Lunar Sea Spire before midnight. Without it, the place would crumble into ashes," She uses her other hand to demonstrate, being so dramatic, her hair falls down, revealing her shiny, cream yellow hair bouncing softly on the impact of the fall, as it fully extends. "I SHOULD HAVE TIED THIS STUPID HAIR SOMEHOW!" She shouted, holding it back up.

"Your hair seems pretty nice, Peridot, why hide it?" Steven asked, and Jasper snorts.

"Steven's right, why _hide_ it?" Lapis said, smiling at Peridot, this is a smile Steven hasn't seen from Lapis when she acts when Peridot's around, But she notices Jasper sneering at the two; the two gems blushed and look away. Peridot looks at Steven.  
"Anyways, you should have seen the Lunar Sea Spire when it was still alive and well on Earth," She said, projecting an image from her gem. "It was an oasis for gems," She demonstrated as the projection shows an image of the Lunar Sea Spire.  
"Yeah, Peridot and I used to hang out at that place for stargazing," Lapis stated, and Peridot blushed

"I am trying to tell Steven something here. And note that we are just friend," Peridot growls under her breath, Lapis snorts in response. Now she clears her throat. "It's abandoned now, but we can still save it by returning this statue!" And now, Jasper and Lapis stand behind her, ready for a mission. Steven becomes starry-eyed.  
"That's perfect!"

"Wha- Why?" Peridot asks, Steven puts down his box.  
"Because I can help carry it for you," He said, reaching for his opened box. "WITH THIS!" And it displays a hamburger-shaped backpack, carrying it over him as he imitates sounds that the Gems are unfamiliar with.

"A Hamburger, Quartz Child?" Jasper asks, she raises her eyebrow.  
"It's a novelty backpack, shaped like a cheese burger! Ah I blew it," He wears the backpack by his one shoulder. "I am going to wear it one day, and you guys are going to be like ' _Thanks Steven, that's so cool!'_ but this is important Gem business!" He said, enthusiastic about the mission.

"Yes, so you should let us take care of it," Peridot said, and Steven frowns.  
"Hey, I am a Gem!" He said, lifting up his shirt and revealing his gem. He shifts his eyes back and forth at her and at his gem.

"But you still got a lot to learn," She said, using her magic to set her hair back to its normal condition.  
"Same with you, Peridot," Lapis blurted out.

"We still need to get going," She replied bluntly.  
"But Peridot, let Steven come with us, he could learn from this!" Lapis said, wanting Steven to join them on a mission. Peridot pouts at her, and she glances at Steven.

"Fine, put the statue inside your bag anyway," She said, handing Steven the object. "And please, be careful," And he gets a hold of the statue, and he opens up his backpack. Suddenly, he becomes starry-eyed by the display.

"This thing has a lot of pockets; _even the cheese is a pocket!_ " And he glances at the three Gems. "Give me a minute, I'll pack extra supplies," And he walks off to get his supplies.  
"Don't take too much; we'll have to put the statue on the Sea Spire!" Peridot said, and Steven has stuffed things on his backpack by this list:

-A Sweater

-Cookie Cats

-Even more Cookie Cats

-A Raft

-His Puffy Jacket

-The Statue he is tasked to bring for the mission.

After two minutes, Jasper groaned. "Quartz Child, let's get going!" And this set Steven into stopping to pack the extra supplies, and he ran for the warp pad.  
"Coming!" He shouted, and then he was on the warp pad with the Gems, but Peridot gasps.

"Did you bring your _whole room_ with you?" She asked, and Lapis laughs.  
"Pack that thing up," She stated.

"Let's move, Gems." And they activated the warp pad, giving a light-blue glow around it, except for Steven's area.

"Breathe in, Steven!" Lapis exclaimed; Steven did, and they are now on the warp. He realizes that everything he sees around him is blue, yet he can still see the Gems with him.  
"Steven, do you know how to do this procedure?" Peridot asks, but she was ignored by Steven, completely laughing as he floats around. His head almost got outside of the warp light, and Peridot pulls him in. "Careful, please," And they are now in the vast, open, and abandoned area known as the Sea Spire. Steven falls to the ground, and he observes the crumbling structure before him.

"The Sea Spire…" He said, starry-eyed while the others grunt in sadness from the sad display. The debris falls off from the building, landing on the water.  
"It wasn't like this before," Peridot stated, while Jasper checked the stability of the place by observing, and touching the ground.

"This place isn't going to hold itself, let's get moving," She stated, and Steven stands on a cliff, observing the water vortex.  
"That's pretty bad," Steven replied, but he isn't aware that the cliff is collapsing underneath him and Lapis notices, getting her into a fit of shock.

"STEVEN!" And she catches him with her water powers on time, and Steven snaps back from his oblivious daydreaming.  
"Oh, thanks Lapis!" but he was cut off by Peridot hugging him, then staring at him.

"Steven, are you okay!?" She panics, and Steven stared at her for a second.  
"Yeah, why?" He asks, then she puts him down to the ground gently, and she crouches infront of him, having her fingers still on Steven's shoulders.

"I know you want to stay and help, but you need to take this seriously. Also, this place is your gem heritage," She said, worried for the little boy's safety. "Can you do it, Steven?"

"Yeah, you got it dude!" Steven said, and he sticks a tongue out while winking, making Lapis giggle at his act, and then Peridot pouts for a second, and she glances away.

"Yes…" She murmurs.  
"Enough talking, time is running out and we have to move," Jasper said, and the other three followed the leader to the Sea Spire, but they were stopped by a dead end from a cliff, which has the building infront of them.

"Jasper, why do we need to stop here? We could jump across the gap!" Lapis stated, hearing the little boy say "Yeah" but they were cut off by Peridot clearing her throat.  
"There's a magic vortex made from the whirlpool, remember?" Peridot said towards Lapis as she throws a rock at the gap, which leads to the water girl scoffing off.

"Well, let's have Steven suggest for a while. What do you say, Jasper?" Lapis asks, but Jasper shrugs off.  
"Let Quartz child decide," Jasper replies back, and Steven looks through his backpack, and he pulls out his sweater, and his puffy jacket. Both Peridot and Lapis glance at him.

"What are you going to do with those?" Peridot asks, Steven looks up to her as he ties up the sleeves of both his sweater and jacket.  
"Normally, I use these to keep myself warm, but check this out," He replied, and he threw one of them onto the small hole, using both sleeves to use as a swing. He takes a deep breath, and Lapis gasps as she realizes what's going on.

"STEVEN, NO!" She shouted, but it was too late. Steven swung towards the hole, but he misses, making him land on the wall. And suddenly, he uses the wall to climb upwards to the path he was supposed to go on, and he successfully lands, using both of his arms to balance himself, just to make sure he wasn't falling down. He hears Lapis sighing loudly, and he also hears her hugging onto something metallic. He glances back, and he sees Lapis hugging her with both arms, tired from panicking as she falls down on her knees.

"GET YOUR LEGS OFF ME YOU CLOD!" Peridot shouts at Lapis, but she doesn't budge.  
"We could have made a water bridge, you know? I'm strong enough," Lapis exhaustibly said, and then she releases herself from Peridot as she stands up, and she takes a deep breath. She closes her eyes as she puts her arms forward, controlling the portion of the water to hover, and then cover up the gap that is between the Gems and Steven. They both walk through the watery gap as Lapis goes first, then she focuses on holding the bridge for the other two, as they soon follow.

"So, did I do great?" Steven asks, and Jasper smiles at him.  
"You managed to get past the magic vortex," Jasper replied.  
"I'll take that as a yes," And they soon climbed up the stairs. And as they inspect the whole place, both Peridot and Lapis complain in whispers about the damages happened in the Sea Spire, and they both came across a destroyed statue, missing the half of its head.

"This is a mess," Lapis stated, inspecting the statue.  
"It wasn't like this before, I hope it returns to its former glory the time we return the statue," Peridot stated, but they saw shrimp-like creatures crawling out of it, getting themselves shout in terror, and she blasts the statue in the process to get them off.

"What are those things?" Steven asks in curiosity, Lapis glances at him.  
"Crystal Shrimp, they are deadly once you touch them," She replied, and Jasper turns back, after realizing the other three aren't catching up.

"Gems, we have a problem here. It's an infestation," Jasper shouted over the flight of stairs she already crossed, and both Steven, Lapis, and Peridot follow her to see the messy, dangerous infestation of the Crystal shrimps.  
"Woah," Steven said in surprise and interest, so he attempts to reach out for one of the creatures crawling across them, but he was pulled back by Jasper.

"You will get hurt, Quartz child," She said, and Steven groans in defeat. Peridot scoffs.  
"Eh, I can try to use one of my robotic powers," She smirks as she focuses on one of her arms, and her fingers spin around like helicopter blades, making herself lift up in the air, struggling for a second, but she gets steady. "It works!" She grins and glances at Lapis, who rolls her eyes while she looks away, smiling.

"Well, I can do that too. You carry Steven, I'll carry Jasper," And Lapis jumps up and starts using her water wings, and she lifts up Jasper, who is surprised from the act.  
"Hey!" Jasper exclaims, but she silenced herself after realizing what Lapis is doing. Peridot soon follows next with Steven being thrilled from being in the air with her. They both land after getting past the deadly creatures.

"Can we do it again?" Steven asks at Peridot, but she waves off the request with her fingers.  
"Sometime, if I ever get to use them again, Steven." She said, and they continue to walk through the path, and they stopped across a big gap with broken sets of stairs. Jasper notices the cracks on the wall on their left.

"Don't move!" She shouted, and the wall crumbles, sending the running water through the gap and destroying the sets of stairs in the process.  
"Oh great, I am too exhausted to use my flight powers anyway," Peridot stated, agitated that an obstacle was made instantly infront of them the time they went past the other one. "But let's give Steven a try," She glances at the little boy with his novelty backpack.

"Are you letting me try again?" He asks, and Peridot nods.  
"Yes, we would like to see you do your best to help us in this situation," She gives him a reassuring smile, and then he grins. He gets down on one knee as he looks through his backpack, and he discovers a yellow Raft he has stored recently, the time before they left the house for this mission.

"Nice one, Steven!" Lapis cheered, and Steven pulls the red handle, expanding it. He throws the raft onto the running water, and it stops on the pile of debris that got stuck the time the wall crumbled. Steven holds his breath and crosses his fingers for hope, but the raft got thrown away by the debris falling off, falling down to the edge with the raft. They sigh in disappointment.

"That was a great idea, Quartz child. At least you did your best," Jasper said, and she punches the pillar on her left, making it fall down to cover the gap. "Let's get moving," And they soon followed, but Steven last follows because he was eating on one of the Cookie Cat pieces. He offers a piece to Lapis, and she accepts, letting her taste the crunchy outsides, yet chewy and cold insides of the ice cream sandwich.

They have arrived on top of the Sea Spire, and what they see is a Moon Gata pedestal, with the moon still overhead by midnight. They walk towards the area.  
"This is it, we can save this part of Gem culture in this planet, and now what we need is Steven to…" She glances at the little boy, who is eating the ice cream sandwiches. "Can you focus on the mission, please?" She asks, irritated at Steven for being distracted. He swallows the piece, and nods.

"I'll get it!" He said, and he rifles through his bag, and he has found the Moon Gata statue, grinning. Peridot gasps, and almost gets teary-eyed.  
"You have it…" She said, and Steven glances at the Crystal Gems.

"Uh, where will I place it?" He asks, and Lapis taps his shoulder, and points it at the pedestal. He makes a sound of realization, and he walks towards the pedestal, and carefully places the statue on the small hole. And now, it makes a glow around it, and the light also hits the moon. Steven backs off as he sees the statue floating upwards, and staying still for several seconds, before it settles down onto the hole, and it gets secured. They feel a slight shake under them, feeling that the ground beneath them is getting closer towards each other.

"Is it getting better?" Steven asks, and then both Peridot and Lapis shot a stare at each other.  
"Isn't it?" Lapis asks, then she checks downstairs, and the structure seems much cleaner, and more polished than what they've seen last time on their journey to return the statue. "Steven did it!" She grinned, and hugged Steven. He sees Peridot and Jasper smiling at him, and he goes starry-eyed.

"Did I actually help you guys?" He asks, still happy that he actually helped the Gems.  
"Yes you did, Steven." Peridot said, and she glances at Jasper. "So, are we leaving?"

"You two could stay, Steven and I will be leaving," She nonchalantly said, as she walks downstairs with Steven following. And they are pretty sure they could hear Peridot shouting "WHAT" and Lapis groaning as her response.

It ends with Steven sitting on his bed, and him noticing that both Peridot and Lapis returned to the Temple after 20 minutes.


	4. The Room Visit

_**Author's Note: Sorry for the inconvenience, I couldn't submit this story when I had the 503 error since Monday (On my timezone), but here it is, and I will work on the next chapter, so be patient! (I might potentially make a small parody of the SU theme sometime.) [Also, I am thinking of starting out another fanfic series, but it will be for Gravity Falls.]**_

* * *

Steven opens up the window that is next to the doorway for his house, and gazes at the beach that is infront of him.

"Everyone's out," He stated.  
"Not really, Steven," Peridot replied, sitting on the couch and using her holographic screen to read the news.  
"Well, guess I'm making us breakfast," He said, and he starts to get a pile of ingredients, and starts making his own.

Several minutes later, he has made a mess on the counter and kitchen, but at least he has made a stack of waffles drizzled in chocolate syrup, with the popcorn around it and topped with whipped cream and strawberry on top. And he beams up from his creation.  
"My breakfast!" He happily said, and he frowns a second later. "I couldn't finish this alone, though. It's too good for me to finish it all," He sat ontop of the counter with the dish beside him.

"Lapis could eat with you for breakfast," Peridot deadpanned, and Steven gets starry-eyed as he learns a great idea.  
"I guess I could call this a _Together Breakfast!_ " He grins at Peridot, and the warp pad glows up on his right, making him glance at it in anticipation. It reveals Jasper with a blue scroll on her hand.

"Hey, Jasper!" He greeted the orange gem on his sight. "Check it out!" He lifts up the dish, holding it with his hand as he carefully gets down on the counter. "It's not exactly _healthy_ , but it's in a stack," And Peridot snorts from his comment. "I guess you could say it's a _Balanced Breakfast_?" He sheepishly grinned at Jasper, who still doesn't respond, but glances at Peridot, who is snickering. Then Steven grins, not sure if his joke is good. A second later, Peridot bursts out laughing.  
"Steven, you don't know what is in Jasper's room," She stated.

"Her room?" He asks.  
"Yes, I'll have to burn this scroll by my room," Jasper replied, and she shows the painting, which is abstract. However, Steven was fascinated by it, so he pulls out his phone and takes a picture of it. This sets off Jasper into a scowl.

"I'll have to burn your phone, too," Jasper growls, and Peridot took note of what Jasper said, so she gets a bit panicky.  
"Jasper, that's not the way on how to deal with that problem!" She ran towards her, who is already walking towards Steven. She snatches the phone from him, and she deletes the photo that was taken recently. Jasper stares at Peridot for a second, and then she shows the phone to her, proving that it was deleted. "Please consider how Greg earns his money before you do something with this phone, Jasper. This costs a lot of money," And the orange-coloured leader raises an eyebrow.

"I'll consider that next time. And make sure Quartz Child doesn't have any of those _things_ on his phone," And she opens up the Gem door, revealing a wide, open area that is tinted with orange, and has a glass ceiling on the top, which is full of bubbles. Jasper goes inside her room, and the door closes.  
"What was that inside?" Steven asks. Peridot looks down at him.

"It's Jasper's room. That's where I train to become better at fighting, and it's where we store all the bubbled Gems," She said. "And I think Lapis should be coming in here for the breakfast with you," And the door opens as Lapis gets out with a green, robotic hand soaked in water. "Isn't that one of my robotic arms!?"

"Yeah and why is it in my room, Peridot?" Lapis asked. "Your hand would be rusty if this keeps getting wet."  
"Do you need a _hand_ to return that thing?" Steven jokes, and Peridot rolls her eyes while Lapis chuckles.

"Good one, Steven." And Steven gives her thumbs up as his response. Peridot snatches the extra robotic arm off Lapis, and forces the Gem door to close, showing the Diamond shape on the door with the icons of the respective gems' colours. Peridot glows her gem, and the door opens up. Steven sees a green-coloured room with a huge monitor on the wall. She walks inside, and the door closes; leaving Steven and Lapis to stand infront of the door.

"So… _Together Breakfast_?" Steven asks, and Lapis nods.  
"Looks like it's a good time for it," And they ate breakfast together.

* * *

After they ate breakfast, Lapis left Steven as she waves at him goodbye, and opens up the door and goes inside, closing it. This left Steven to sigh in loneliness, and he pulls out his phone to play video games. Few minutes later, he sees Peridot opening the door clumsily as she puts down useless junk near the door, and leaves as the door attempts to close, but it doesn't. This left Steven into being curious, and he puts his phone on his pocket, and walks towards the door.

He squeezes through the door, and kicks the junk off the door, closing it. He starts to observe the surroundings around him, and what lies before him is a room full of technology, something you would see in a science-fiction movie. Green Robotic limbs carefully placed on walls and tables, a huge monitor fixed on the wall, with a futuristic looking touch-pad infront of it. The whole room is mostly shades of green. And lastly, Peridot herself is using the control panel, while still holding the robotic limb on her hand.

"Hi Peridot!" Steven happily greets the green gem, but she jumps in shock instead, and glances at Steven.  
"Steven, what are you doing here?" She asked with worry on her tone. "The amount of robotic limbs I have in this room could scare you!"

However, Steven was fascinated by Peridot's room, instead of being scared of the room in general. "I find this cool; it's like what I've seen in those cool movies!" And this gets Peridot into changing her expression from worry to shock.  
"Really?" And Steven nods; making her blush from his compliment. "Thanks, Steven. I appreciate that," The green gem said as she smiles at him. "Anyways, this is my room."

"Yeah, I know that, but why the arms and legs on your walls?" Steven asks in curiosity.  
"It's mostly my tools, I am a versatile gem for this team," she lifts her arm and uses the other arm to point at it. "This actually robotic, so I can remove this," She puts down the robotic limb, and she touches her forearm with her finger, having the robotic limb split open in two. She yanks it off gently, revealing her actual forearm, which is average in size, but her hand is between average and small. Steven gets starry-eyed.  
"Woah," He said, and Peridot puts on the other limb as she slips her arm in it like a glove, and a robotic hand emerges from the wrist of her robotic limb.

"See? I can actually feel things with this type of limb, and I can work with human's kind of technology," She said, and then Steven inspects Peridot's arm, where her recently equipped robotic arm is. It looks similar to a human arm, but the hand still floats.  
"Well, what about the other one you removed?" Steven asked.

"Eh, that's just for Gem technology," She replied, and Steven looks around his surroundings again, and he notices a body of water from the gap between the walls of her room. Being so curious of him, he checks out and he squeezes through, and now he stands on a balcony, seeing a waterfall that is next to him, which the waterfall leads to a huge body of water after that. Steven is amazed by it.

However, Peridot is very worried about Steven accidentally falling down to the "ocean", so she calls Steven as she gets onto the balcony with him and she puts her hand on him.  
"Steven, you need to get back. You're looking at Lapis' room!" Peridot said.  
"But what could go wrong for a visit?" Steven raises his arms as to shrug, and Peridot hums.

"Well, that's a good point. But we'll still need you to get back," But her arm was pushed off by Steven, and he dives to the waterfall as he is laughing, scaring her in the process. "STEVEN!" She shouted, and she leans on the railing of the balcony, and she catches Steven on time with her tractor beam, stopping his fall as he was about to hit Lapis.

Lapis looks up, and she sees Steven floating ontop of her. "Hi, Steven!" She said, but she realizes that he was suspended in the air by Peridot; She is sure she heard Peridot shout "Catch him" from a distance, so she spread her arms wide, and catches Steven from the fall. She uses her water powers to give way to show land for Steven to stand on, and she puts him down there. "What are you doing here?"

"I was wondering about what your room looks like; same with Jasper and Peridot," He stated, and Lapis ponders for a second.  
"Well, this is my room, actually," She pouts. "And just to prevent explaining a lot like Peridot told you about her place, this is where I just hide all of my junk I don't need, and I can control everything in here," She said, and she controls a portion of the water, revealing a pile of junk underneath it, then she hides it. "See?" And Steven nods, still grinning.

"But what about Jasper?" He asks again, and she shrugs again.  
"It's just a plain old gym; you can just ask her if you want training," Lapis said, and Steven now gets curious about Jasper's room.

"Can I go there?" He asks, starry-eyed. But Lapis shakes her head hesitantly.  
"Well, she's busy with something. We can't disturb her," And Steven whines in despair.

"What is she doing, then?" He asks again.  
"She's burning something," She replied. "It's going to be dangerous if she doesn't bubble it properly."

"Well, can I see her room?" And Lapis shrugs.  
"Sure, but it's just only a peek," She said, and she lets Steven sit on her shoulders as they walk towards a wall, then she opens up the door, and they go outside of her room, and she closes the door. Less than 5 seconds, Peridot opens up the door.

"Lapis, you can't just go inside Jasper's room, she's too busy controlling the scroll that she's burning!" She said, peeking out from the door with worry.  
"What could go wrong? Steven will just take a peek," Lapis shrugs.

"We will be in big trouble if she gets disturbed, also to mention that scroll is _alive!_ " She got out of the room, and she is now inside of the house.  
"Well, we'll just have to make sure Steven won't disturb her," Lapis replied; she glances at the little boy. "Can you do it, Steven?"  
"On what?"  
"Checking out her room, while _not_ disturbing her."  
"I'll try," And so Peridot takes something out of her gem like a pocket, and holds out a pin. She puts it on the orange icon that belongs to Jasper, and she glows her gem. The door slowly opens up for Steven to fully see Jasper's room. There is a pit of lava on the center, Rows of weapons for training, and for actual combat, and a lot of bubbled gems on the ceiling. Jasper is still busy containing the smoke inside an orange-coloured bubble. Steven is very amazed by the whole setting of the place, and he doesn't realize that he is walking inside and he isn't aware that he is pulling out his phone. Both Peridot and Lapis notice him, and they panic..

Lapis whispers, "Steven, get back here!" But it was too late. Jasper heard Lapis, and she was shocked by the display of both Lapis and Peridot peeking from the door, and Steven unknowingly walking inside the room while taking pictures with his phone.  
"What are you three doing here?" Jasper asks in a mix of confusion and a slight hint of anger inside her, being interrupted from her work; the bubble stretches as the smoke gets bigger, and Jasper puts her hands around it to contain it. "You guys shouldn't be in here, it's too dangerous," She stated as she gives a side glance at the two gems, but she still notices Steven walking around in her room. "Steven," She called him, and this sets Steven into realizing that he is going to be in trouble. Suddenly, the bubble pops, and the smoke goes straight for the phone, knocking the boy over. He checks for his phone, and it turns into a robotic monster, going as big as Steven, and then suddenly expanding to the extent that it's bigger than Jasper. It roars at Jasper and smacks her, crashing her to the wall. Peridot and Lapis run inside the room to help them, and Lapis tries to throw water at the monster, but it only gets the monster to be angrier than ever before, so it reaches out for Steven.

Peridot shoots the enemy's arm with her blaster, but it was blocked off by the monster holding the arm over itself. She grunts by the fact that it didn't work; she saw Lapis throwing water at her. This gives her a realization, and she smirks at that fact.  
"Lapis, you need to cover it with water again!" She exclaimed, Steven backs off even more in fear. Lapis nods at her, and she uses her water wings to cover it, annoying the monster. Peridot punches with her fingers, and it shocks the monster, stunning it. Steven realizes the two gems need help, so he interrupts both the two gems to push the monster towards the lava, and it is about to touch the fiery magma.

"I don't care if I am going to lose my apps again, but I want to have my friends be okay again!" and he forces the monster into the lava, and it screeches as it melts to death from the lava, and sinks down to the fiery magma. Jasper, Lapis, and Peridot walk towards Steven after they recovered, and stared at the place where his "phone" had died. They are pretty sure Steven is exhausted at this rate.

Jasper glances at Peridot, "What did you say about considering about Greg?" She sneers at her. Peridot groans and rolls her eyes.  
"It was killing us, Jasper!" She exclaimed, spreading her arms to show her frustration. Jasper snorts at her.

"We'll have to make up for this somehow," Lapis said, and Steven gets starry-eyed.  
"You could help Dad at the car wash!" And this gets both Peridot and Jasper to agree with what he said. Lapis shrugs.  
"Why not?" She shrugs with a faint smile, and she leaves the room with Steven beside her, leaving both Jasper and Peridot alone in the room.

"We seriously need to help Greg earn his money," Peridot stated.  
"Nice suggestion. We'll tell him tomorrow," Jasper said, and they both left the room, and they see Lapis help Steven make another "Together Breakfast" for him.


	5. Frybo

Steven has been looking through the messy pile of clothing for a few hours, and he hasn't found his pair of pants. He frowns in frustration, "Where are you?" He complained, and he sighs from failing on his messy adventure of finding his pants; he puts his hands on his hips. "You're a mess, Steven."

He heard robotic footsteps, and it reveals Peridot hastily running towards the kitchen with a bubble on her one hand, and her other hand searching the cabinets and drawers. She is murmuring something under her breath with her face full of frustration, she might be finding something to finish the "puzzle" collection, based on the gem arrangement from her green-coloured bubble.

"Steven, have you seen a Gem Shard anywhere in this house? It's very important," She worries as she glances at him.  
"No, but have you seen my pants?" He stood up and placed his clenched hands on his hips, showing himself wearing his underwear and T-shirt. "They're also very important."

"Unlike you, I am very serious about this, Steven."  
"I am also serious about this too."  
"Listen, Steven." She raises the bubble in her hand, very annoyed by Steven's response. "These gem shards are from the gems throughout history, causes a lot of casualties, and it can control anything as long as it's inside," She said, and she notices Steven spaces out from listening, so she tries to snap her fingers, but the thumb lightly pokes Steven instead, alerting him. "Did you understand what I said?" And he nods. She hears something walking across the room. "What was that?"

"Are those my pants?" He asks, and he peeks out from the corner, and they both see Steven's pair of pants walking around. "THOSE ARE MY PANTS!" He ran for the pants.  
"THAT THING HAS A GEM SHARD IN IT, BE CAREFUL!" Peridot shouted, but Steven dived towards the pair of pants, and he forcibly puts it on. Peridot sighs, and Steven pulls out something from his pocket, and it reveals a cracked, light-blue object. It attempts to pull at Steven's shirt, but he stretches his arm away from himself, preventing it from possessing his shirt. He gave the shard to Peridot.

"Thanks, Steven. Tell me if you find more of these," She gently puts the shard ontop of the bubble, and it gets sucked in, getting inside of Peridot's bubble. She goes outside of the house, leaving Steven alone in the house. He gets pretty lonely after five minutes of playing video games.

"Maybe I should help her find them," And so he puts on his hoodie, bright-yellow boots, and his Cheeseburger backpack

He is passing by the Beach Citywalk Fries, looking for Peridot so he can help her find the shards. He has a split-second thought that he should get back inside and let Jasper and Lapis help her, but he ditches the idea; Lapis is too busy helping Greg by the car wash, and Jasper is busy doing a mission somewhere in this planet. And suddenly, his train of thought crashed only to bump infront of something, and it made him fall towards the ground. He recovers, and he sees a huge, grinning figure resembling French fries.

He hears a boy screeching inside the figure, "Please help me!" The boy said through the costume, and he shouts something incoherent as Steven screams in fear from the display, and the boy inside runs around trying to shoo off the birds.

The boy inside stops for a second and lifts the top-half of the costume, proving that it was just actually a mascot suit for promoting fries in his fast-food chain. He swings it at the birds, actually getting them away from him. "I'M NOT FRIES!" He emphasizes every word he shouted at them, and he pants for breath as he calms down. Steven sits up, and takes a deep breath loudly.

A door opens up from the restaurant, revealing Mr. Fryman going outside of the place, "Where's your face, Frybo? Being a part of the family means you gotta sell fries! And be my son, which you are." He reassured at the last sentence, but the little boy in a mascot suit sighs in exhaustion. "You are halfway there, keep at it, Frybo!" He smiles and slowly closes the door. However, the little boy was offended by him being called by the wrong name.

"I'M PEE-"And the door closes, cutting him off. "…Dee." He frowns from being cut off by his father, especially by the fact that he has to deal with birds while selling fries.

"Hi Peedee!" Steven smiles at him, but he doesn't notice Peedee's not smiling at him. Peedee sighs as he turns to Steven, still closing his eyes.

"I told my dad I wanted to be a part of the Fryman family business; I didn't think it meant being stuck in a sweaty costume and being pecked by birds all day," He sighed, and he puts back on his hat, and helps Steven get up. "Things used to be different, Steven. Nothing to worry about back then and making myself dizzy on the Seahorse Ride at Funland," his voice trembles.

However, Steven grins at him. "Oh Frybo, you're hilarious!" And this sets Peedee to clench his fists to avoid shouting at him, so he sighs instead.

Peedee crosses his arms and said, "I wish this costume would do its job _without me in it!_ " He complains, and Steven has an idea.  
"Maybe it can, Peedee. Maybe it can," Steven's eyes form star-shaped from his great idea, so Peedee agrees to let him try his idea.

However, Steven was having trouble trying to promote fries while being pecked by the birds coming towards him, so he ran around the place, making Peedee regret his idea. Steven gets out of the suit, and thinks of another solution; he looks through his backpack, and he suddenly finds a blue shard.  
"I don't remember having this in my backpack," Steven said.

"What does it do anyway, Steven?" Peedee asks.  
"Peridot said that this could control anything as long as it's inside of something," Steven said. "I could use this on Frybo!"

"Well why don't you do it anyway?" And Steven puts down the shard at the Frybo costume, and nothing happened first. But suddenly, it was shaking, and this terrifies both Peedee and Steven. The costume stops shaking, and it now looks clean and fixed; after that, it rolls around the two kids. Steven was amazed by it, and he commands "Frybo" to stop, and it did.  
"Can you control it?" And Steven nods and steps aside to let him try. "Get up!" And so "Frybo" did.

"Do a little dance!" Steven grins, and "Frybo" sits up, and it forms legs out of French fries and dances happily. "It works!" He glances at Peedee, but he notices that his smile falters slightly, due to being slightly afraid from it.

Fryman opens up the door, impressed by Frybo's dancing, and Peedee hides behind Steven. "Woah all right! It's about time- well good job, buddy!" He chuckles, and Frybo glances at him. "Keep it up!" He gave Frybo thumbs up, and closes the door.

Peedee stands up and grabs Steven's shoulder, he makes an ecstatic sound. "I'm free!" And Steven grins at him, having his plan actually work. Peedee runs towards Frybo, "You got the job, Frybo! Let's shake on it," He said, offering a handshake.

Frybo offers his hand to him, and he starts shaking Peedee's hand, but it goes too far as the he actually shakes up and down from it.

Steven laughs from its act, "Hah, he's got jokes!"

Peedee puts his hand at Frybo, "Okay, cut it out. I don't want to puke," And so it puts him down. He slowly stands up, "Okay, just go make people eat fries," And it runs off elsewhere, leaving a trail of French fries. "Ha, let's go be kids!" He takes Steven's hand and goes somewhere with him.

Peedee puts a coin into the coin slot for the Seahorse ride, and Steven does the same on the Jellyfish ride. They both sit on the separate rides, and it starts up. They both go enthusiastic about it; however, Peedee's mood goes down as he realizes he's going to get older.

His ride stops, and he leans on the front part of the ride, "I feel like there's no point to it, you know what I mean?"

Steven is still shaking from the ride, "I just feel tingly," and it was true, based on the shakiness of his voice from the ride.

Peedee sighs, "You don't understand when you have a job."

Steven's ride stops, "I do have a job! I protect humanity from magic and monsters and stuff!"

"I mean a _real_ job, the one where you get paid for."

"I'm paid in the smiles across the town's faces," Steven puts his hand pointing at the sky, starry-eyed.

Peedee frowns at Steven, "I don't see anyone smiling. You pick up a job to buy a house, or raise kids or to… Impress your dad. You work away your lift and what does it get you?"

"Smiles and faces?" Steven smiles at his answer.

"No," And Steven realizes. "You get cash; cash that can't buy back what the job takes," Peedee sighs, "Not if you ride every seahorse in the world."

Now Steven finally realizes what his friend's speech meant, "Woah," But he feels bad about Peedee being sad all the time, so he tries to cheer him up. "Wanna try the Jellyfish?" But he was interrupted by screaming coming from their left.

"Is that coming from the Fry shop?" Steven asks, and Peedee gets off the ride, so as Steven. Now they see people coming out of the Citywalk Fries shop, screaming as they run away from something inside the place. Two yellow tendrils grab two people, and pull them inside of the shop.

"WE DIDN'T TELL HIM TO DO THAT, DID WE TELL HIM TO DO THAT!?" Peedee panics, but Steven pushes him down on time to dodge the table thrown across the room. They peeked over from where the window broke, and they see Frybo forcing people to eat the fries while strangling them.

Steven gets upset at Frybo for hurting people, "Frybo, stop." He firmly said while pointing at him and Frybo turns towards him. Now he looks different than what Steven saw several minutes ago, now Frybo has arteries and veins shown and pronounced around his face, and he looks darker than usual. He stares at Steven deep in the eyes, making Steven feel as if he was staring as his soul.

Now Steven regrets what he said, his mouth agape from what Frybo has changed over time, and Frybo throws Lars towards them, and they ducked on time. Fortunately, Lars has landed on the table, softening his impact from the fall.

"I don't even like fries!" Lars complained, and now Peedee and Steven really realize what's going on.

"WHY ISN'T HE LISTENING!?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Steven shouted with worry on his tone, but they hear a door opening from the shop, and they hear Mr. Fryman; He thought that it was Peedee getting out of control. The actual Peedee peeks from the window, witnessing his father get pulled by Frybo.

"I get it, I pushed you too hard. I thought you wanted to be as good as Fryman as you could be!" Fryman cried, and Frybo stares at him with the same grinning face he is wearing, it raises its hand to ready up to shove fries onto his mouth. "You're a tough kid for putting up for all what we did; the truth is, you're a valued member of _Fryman Bros. Inc._ and its affiliates!" And Peedee realizes that Frybo has gone too far, and that Fryman is sorry for it. Now Frybo shoves French fries onto his father's mouth.

"Dad!' He cried, and he attempts to leap for the window, but he was stopped by Steven.

"No, he'll mash you with potatoes!" He shouted, and Peedee gets teary-eyed.

"What are you gonna do?"

Steven turns at him, "My job!" He grins, but he doesn't notice that Fryman is about to land on Steven and Peedee, and they got stuck after he fell. Frybo readies up more French fries and approaches towards them, but it was stopped by Peridot noticing the whole situation.

"Steven, did you put _my_ missing shard in that costume?" She furrows her eyebrows at him, and Steven nods sheepishly. "For Lapis' sake, have I told you that these things cause a lot of casualties!?"

"No!" He panics, and attempts to get himself off Fryman; Peridot sighs.

"I'll have to deal with this thing by myself then," She readies up her arm cannon, and fires at Frybo, but it only angers him. He attacks back with mustard and ketchup, and it hits Peridot. "This is going to be a mess when I clean up," She worried, afraid that the condiments will fry her robotic parts and poof her. Frybo falls down from the blast Peridot shot awhile ago, and Steven runs towards her.

"Peridot, are you okay?" He observes the mess that she received, and she is covered in a mix of ketchup and mustard.

"It's everywhere; just remove my visor!" She panics, and Steven follows what she says, and it reveals her eyes, nose, and her gem still untouched from the mess, thanks to her visor. "Thank you, Steven." She sighs in relief, and the gem shards sparkle, catching Steven's attention.

"The gem shards…" His eyes sparkle at the sight of them, having a new plan or idea in mind.

"Forget it, I can't use my cannon anyway," She complains, and she lets Steven get hold of the shards.

Frybo comes back from recovering, ready to attack the Fryman family with its French fries. But he was interrupted by a pair of pants kicking it.

Both Fryman and Peedee said "Steven" when they saw the pair of pants, and Peridot glances at him, and she was shocked by the display. Steven is wearing nothing but his underwear, and he uses his clothing to put the gem shards on to be ready to attack Frybo.

"Your move Frybo," And Steven eats a French fry piece that has been hanging on his mouth, and Frybo rushes at him. "Attack!" He commanded, and his jacket comes in first and hits Frybo at the abdomen, and then a sock and a boot both hold its arm and leg in place, and the shirt biting the back of Frybo. It screams from being restrained, and it swings its arm at Steven, making him get knocked over.

He gasps from its act and he squints in determination, "I didn't want to do this, but you leave me choice, Frybo." And he lies down and gets his legs pointed towards Frybo. "Underwear, go!" He shouted, and his underwear gets off Steven, and it lands on Frybo. The pair of pants kicks Frybo down, making him lie on the ground; Steven runs towards him, and pulls out the shard off Frybo's mouth, and Frybo gets deactivated.

"This, is strangely bizarre to look at," Peridot stares at him with shock. "Are you still okay, Steven?"  
"I'm fine!" He said, but he still sits down and glances at the shard. "As soon as I bare my butt, I knew it'd crack."

* * *

It is a dark, gloomy twilight for Beach City, with the colour of Pink slightly spreading across the horizon, and it was just the time that Steven's clothing carried the newly dead Frybo to the boat, and Peridot making a tune with her fingers, using the screen like a piano. This leaves Peedee and Mr. Fryman to mourn it with them.

Fryman takes off his hat and places it on his chest, "You were great, Frybo. Kids today just didn't understand," He brings up his one of his hands near his face. "And now, they never will," He covers his face with his hand, voice trembling in sorrow.

However, Peridot was confused with the situation, "To be honest, I find the costume a bit creepy, even the fact that we have to mourn for it." But she was hushed by Steven.

"Let's give Frybo a moment of silence, Peridot," He raised both of his eyebrows and frowns, as if to give concern to the Fryman family.

She sighs, "Fine." And she rolls her eyes in annoyance.

Fryman pulls out his lighter, "It's time to send him off." And he turns it on, walks towards to Frybo, and lights it on fire. The pair of pants slowly kicks it towards the shore. He sighs and looks down, "He's greasy in death, as he was in life."

Peedee tries to speak up for a few amounts of times, but fails. "Dad, I- are we going to get another Frybo costume?" He asks.

Fryman thinks for a second, "Nah, we don't need another Frybo. All I got is a _Fryman_ ," he pulls Peedee closer to a hug, and his son was flattered by it.

Steven stares at them, and then he grins at Peridot; he was happy that he did his job. "Peridot, I think my work here is done."

"You still need to show decency, Steven. Put your clothes on."

And so Steven does put on his clothes.

* * *

 ** _Author's Note: I do apologize if this is more of a copy-paste chapter; doing a chapter with more interaction between humans is still the same as shown in the episode. So don't worry, I'll do my best on the next chapter: Cat Fingers._**


	6. Cat Fingers

Both Steven and his father Greg are washing up the van, which is made specifically for Mayor Dewey. They are almost done with the work.

Greg aims the hose at the hood, "Almost done; Lapis, get the hubcaps!" He commanded at her, who is placing more water on the bucket Steven uses.  
"Will do it, Greg," And she grabs the hubcaps off from the pile, and sets it next to Steven. He grabs one of them.

"Going to make it shiny!" He polishes the hubcaps with determination.  
"Shine it good, this is a high-profile job." Greg now shifts his aim to the windshield.

"You mean this is the Mayor's election mobile?" Steven keeps shining the hubcaps, and puts them on the wheels.  
"Yes, Steven. And actually, I have met this person before."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, he's not a bad one," She hides her face of disgust with a smile.

"Well, if we do this right, we might get political favours!" Greg grins at Steven, and then to Lapis.  
"I'm not sure what that is, but I like it!" And he aims the hose upwards, and it accidentally hits Greg. Lapis giggles at the fact that it suddenly turned into a water hose fight. She turns around, and she sees someone wearing a suit, and looks high-class for its appearance.

 _Is that Mayor Dewey- Oh no he_ is _Mayor_ _Dewey_ , She thought with shock in her eyes, but she quickly averts them before he notices it.

"Hey, hey, _hey_ , I am not paying you two for father-son bonding here-" But he was cut off by realizing Steven is aiming the hose at him, but Lapis stops the flowing water on time. Dewey glances back at Lapis, who bites her bottom lip nervously. Thankfully, he smiles.

 _Thank you_ , he mouthed at Lapis, and she simply nods. "Universe, control that kid!' He firmly said, and then he walks towards to the van.

"Sorry Mayor Dewey, Steven is a carefree and lovable kid in this town," Lapis walks towards Steven, and ruffles his hair; Steven laughs from her action.  
"Yeah, Mayor Dewey, but this van is on the house," Greg sheepishly smiles as Dewey inspects the van. It is a white-coloured van with Red and Blue stripes for the decals, and the sides read "Mayor Dewey" with cursive font for the lettering; the most top features two big speakers, and the head replica of the Mayor himself.

He is impressed by Greg's work, "A house, eh? I like the way you do business Mr. Universe," He smiles at him and gives him a thumbs up gesture.  
"Well, we do our best to satisfy our customers, Mayor," Lapis shrugs.  
"Especially how _you_ do business, Lapis." And he gets inside the van, puts on his seatbelt, and drives off while the speakers blare out "MAYOR DEWEY" over and over. This leaves Lapis have her mouth agape from what he just said.

"I can't believe this person still likes me," Lapis deadpanned, unable to show any kind of reaction at this rate.

"Does Mayor Dewey like Lapis?" Steven asks.  
"He has a crush on Lapis, since the time they met when I also met your mother," Greg glances at Lapis. "Right?"

" _Before_ you met Rose, actually," She corrected. "He has been trying to get my attention non-stop, until he became an actual Mayor," She sighs. "I was surprised he still likes me."  
"Yeah, I have seen him try to get your attention during those old days!" He grinned, nostalgic from remembering those old times.

"Like, he has been flirting with me like this-" And she suddenly changes her shape and form into some figure that looks like the younger version of Dewey, "- _It would be a shame if I couldn't win my love's heart_ ," And then Steven, Lapis, and Greg laugh from the imitation, but Greg realizes that it's magic stuff.

He backs off with worry, "Wait, is that magic stuff? I'll just back away to be safe," And he walks away, fixing up the mess from the work he did with Steven and Lapis.

"You can shapeshift?" Steven's eyes gleam in amazement and curiosity.

"Yeah, it's a Gem thing, you should learn it sometime."  
"Can I learn it now?" And Greg gasps in shock from Steven's response.

* * *

Steven and Lapis are now inside the Temple, messing with Peridot, who is attempting to fix up her Robonoids.

Lapis shapeshifts into a small, spherical object with floating legs, and jumps up to the counter, startling Peridot," Hey, you could fix me right now!"

"Lapis, these things are important for Steven's safety!"  
"I am also important," And Peridot's cheeks darken into a shade of dark-green from embarrassment. Lapis and Steven chuckle as she returns to her original form.

"You should lighten up; you have been serious lately," She shrugs, still sitting on the counter, and then she shapeshifts herself into a small bird with a pointy beak, her hair pointing backwards, and having water as her wings. She flies and lands on Steven's hair.  
"Lapis, you are overdoing it; that will exhaust you if you keep doing so," Peridot stands up and walks towards her. She puts her arms on her hips in annoyance.

"Calm down, Peridot. I am just demonstrating Steven about shapeshifting," And Lapis reverts to her original form, now standing beside Steven.

Steven glances up to Peridot, "Can you shapeshift?"  
Peridot shrugs, "Well, not really, because I have robotic parts, but I can still fuse-" She was interrupted by someone looking like her, except it looks more like blue.

"Of course I can, I am _perfect_ Peridot!" And Lapis turns around to show her back, and leans over. " _CLANG, CLANG!_ " She slaps her butt, and she laughs as Peridot pushes her over.

"MY POSTERIOR DOESN'T SOUND LIKE THAT!" Peridot shouts in frustration.  
"But we have Steven to take care of, so watch your mouth, Peridot!" Lapis sneers at her, and Peridot grits her teeth as she tries to calm down. Peridot finally calms down afterwards, and walks towards Steven.

"Do you really like to know how shapeshifting works, Steven?" Peridot asks as she crouches infront of him.  
"Well, Lapis has shown me."

"But she hasn't shown you _how_ and _why_ it works," Peridot rolls her eyes, and then she uses her gem to show a holographic view of various objects. "Steven, all gems have shapeshift powers. They can change their form to other objects, like teapots, animals, the shape of other people or other Gem physical forms, or you could just do that," She glances at Lapis, who is still teasing Peridot.

" _CLANG CLANG!_ " Lapis teased, and Peridot shrugs off for one more time.

"Can I try to turn into a giant Lion?" Steven gets starry-eyed from the thought.  
However, Peridot notices, "You should start small; going to the top first is a risky move to take in first, Steven." And she grabs the Robonoids off the counter, and walks towards the Gem door.

" _CLANG CLANG!_ " Lapis keeps teasing, and Peridot groans as she gets inside her room; this left Lapis laughing a lot as she turns back into her normal form. Steven walks towards her.

"Can I still turn into a giant Lion?" Steven asks again, but Lapis shrugs.

"Well, for once Peridot is right about what she said; you need to start out small." Lapis explained.

"How about a small cat?" And Lapis ponders for a second.

"Good suggestion, let's try that." And both Lapis and Steven walk towards the kitchen, and Steven watches Lapis carefully. "So, the key into shapeshifting, is to just feeling like you can turn into a cat, or something else, then you just feel it!" And she does a little dance, and she turns into a small cat.  
She prances towards Steven, "See? This is how you do it. You try."

Steven says "okay" and he puts his fingers on his forehead, struggling. He is pushing too hard on imagining a cat.  
"Don't push it, Steven. It should have a little bit of rhythm," Lapis said, as she retains the cat form, she leaps on the counter, sitting down to observe Steven.

Eventually Steven gives up, and Lapis sighs. "Well, it was a nice try, let's take a break," She passes by him, but she hears a cat meowing.  
"Lapis, was that you?"

Lapis changes into her original form, "I didn't meow, but am I sure your fingers did that?" And Steven shows his hands, and they what they see in Steven's index finger, is that there's a live cat as his finger. "Woah, I have never seen a live, free-living cat from a gem before."

"So, can I show it to everyone?" Steven grins.  
"Let's show it to everyone, then."

* * *

Steven and Lapis walk up towards Greg to the car wash. Steven is hiding his hand, where the small cat is.

"Hey Dad!" He grins at Greg.  
"Hey Stoo-ball, how's it going?" He takes off his sunglasses, smiling at his son.

"Oh well, Greg, we decided to show you what he did. Show it, Steven." And he shows his hand, revealing the live cat that replaces his index finger.

Greg, however, gets startled by it, and throws the bottle of water at Steven. The cat gets soaked, and whines.

Steven calms down his cat finger, "I shapeshifted my finger into a cat!"

Greg hesitantly agrees, "So, is that a thing you can do now? Well, that's cool, Steven." He nervously stated, afraid of magic.  
"I know right? I am going to take this show on the road!" And Steven laughs as he backs off, walking towards the Big Donut with Lapis on his side.

* * *

Steven and Lapis both walk inside of the convenience store, and they both see Lars and Sadie flirting to each other.

Both Lars and Sadie quickly noticed the two people coming inside. Sadie is the one to talk up first, "Hey Lapis!" She waves at Lapis, and she notices Steven, who is hiding his right hand on his pocket. "And hello to you, Steven."  
Lars snorts, "Look, Steven's back. Are you going to talk about _aliens_ , again?" He sarcastically asks, sneering at Steven.

However, Steven was unaffected by Lars' insult, but Lapis is rolling his eyes at him, annoyed.  
Steven walks up to them, "One donut, please." He orders, and Sadie types something onto the cash register.

"That will be one dollar, Steven." She stated, and she glances at Lapis, who is just observing the surroundings around her.  
Steven looks through both of his pockets; he puts down a nickel, "Here's a nickel… And here's a buck!" He reveals his right hand, which has the cat holding the Dollar bill.

Both Sadie and Lars gasp in surprise for what they have seen, and the cat meows, dropping the dollar bill to the counter.  
"Steven, that is adorable!" Sadie compliments as she pets the cat, which is purring from her action.

"Well, Steven did that by himself, but I taught him how to do it," Lapis stated.  
Now, Sadie actually wonders if Steven was the one controlling the cat, "Steven, are you making it purr?"

"It kind of does what it wants," Steven scratches his head.  
"Really?" And Lars reaches out for the cat, making Lapis snicker from his soon-to-be mistake, and the cat bites Lars' finger. "Ouch!" He pulls his hand back from it.

"See what I mean?" And Steven glares at his cat finger, "Bad Cat Finger!" He scolds it.  
"Aw, I am sure it just wants to play," Sadie reassured, and this gets Steven to have an idea.

"You're right, Sadie, this cat finger needs friends!" He gets starry-eyed.  
However, Lapis gets a bit concerned, "Are you sure that you could have more rebellious cat fingers on your hands? You might not pick things up after all."

Steven shrugs off, "It's for showing off, Lapis. I can just return to my Steven fingers later," And he takes a deep breath and does a little dance.  
Lars laughed sarcastically and said, " _Oh man, the cat finger doesn't have any friends, like Steven!_ " and Lapis snorts from his joke.

Steven now has the other four cat fingers on his right hand, and they meowed in unison.  
Sadie puts a bag, containing a donut inside, "Here's your donut Steven," She smiles.

Steven takes the bag with his free hand, "Thanks!" And he walks off the shop with Lapis following him, waving goodbye at the two teenagers working in there.

* * *

Steven and Lapis both stop by the Beach Citywalk Fries shop, and they see Peedee standing by the window.  
"Hello, Peedee." Lapis greets with a smile, and Peedee smiles back at her.

Peedee now glances at Steven, "Hey Steven."  
"Hi Peedee, give me the bits!" Steven slams on the counter with his fist.

However, Peedee dodges his request, "Steven, you know I take my job seriously. Please, use the actual menu."  
"Give me the bits," And he keeps slamming the counter with his fist, repeatedly saying "The bits" over and over until Mr. Fryman steps in.

Fryman reassures Peedee by putting his hand on his son's shoulder, "Yeah. Listen, it will be over soon if you give him what he wants." And Peedee nods and he goes towards the deep fryer.

"Hey, it's not for me or for Lapis, it's for these guys!" Steven reveals his other hand to show his cat fingers. Mr. Fryman was amazed by the display, and Steven shapeshifts his free hand into cat fingers.

"He did them," Lapis stated, and Peedee comes back with a tray of French Fry bits on his hand, putting it down on the counter.  
"Woah," Was the only word Peedee could come up with when he saw both Steven's hands.

Fryman smiles at Peedee as he realizes, "You know who would love this? Your brother!" And Fryman calls Peedee's older brother named "Ronaldo".  
"Hey dad…" Ronaldo replies back to his father calling him, but he quickly noticed Steven's cat fingers. He drops the box in shock, and runs towards the counter. "Woah, let me take a picture!" And he pulls out his phone, and both Steven and Lapis pose for a picture. "I am going to post this on my blog!"

"What blog?" Steven asks.  
"It's Keep Beach City Weird! It's where I put my conspiracies and weird stuff coming from this city!" He grins as he spreads his arms wide.  
"Well, can I see the photo?" Lapis asks, and Ronaldo hands over the phone to her. She sees a picture of Steven smiling for the photo with his cat fingers, and Lapis closing her eyes, grinning, and making a peace sign. Suddenly she was bitten by them, and she drops the phone with her free hand, and yanks her bitten hand away from the feline fingers.

Lapis glances at Steven with worry, "I don't think those fingers are as functional as your normal fingers, Steven. We'll get back into our house." And Steven frowns as he slowly walks away. She glances at Ronaldo with a fake smile, "And Ronaldo, please print that picture for us tomorrow, we like that to be framed in our house."  
"Well, okay then. See you tomorrow!" Ronaldo waves at them, and mutters something under his breath, ecstatic that he has found material for his blog.

* * *

Next morning, Steven is struggling to get up on his bed, because the cats were chewing and scratching on the bed sheets. He opens up the refrigerator door with ultimate struggle as he tries to get the cats to follow his needs. He attempts to get a sandwich, but the felines are too stubborn, so he uses his wrists, and then his elbows to hold the plate.  
Lapis stands and then leans through the window pane on the house, "Steven, do you need help?" She asks with morning happiness that she has every morning.

Steven turns around to have Lapis see what's going on, and Lapis figures it out and she frowns in worry., "Oh no, we have to tell Jasper." And she jumps through the window, and helps Steven put down the plate on the counter. And out of panic, she carries Steven like a baby, as she runs outside to alert the other two gems.

Peridot and Jasper sit on a wooden boat, which has the rotor on the back. And they both see Steven and Lapis on the seashore. Lapis puts Steven down afterwards.

"Peridot, Steven's shapeshifting controls are getting out of _hand_!" Lapis cracks her voice at the last word, which gets Jasper snicker from the joke. "Jasper, I am serious."

"What is wrong with Steven's fingers?" Peridot gets out of the boat, and inspects his fingers.  
"They suddenly all went crazy stubborn on me; they don't function as well as my normal fingers!" He worries, and Peridot glances at Jasper.

"Jasper, we have to cancel the mission now." Peridot firmly said in her commanding voice.  
"Peridot, this is a tectonic emergency; we still need you to complete this one," And she glances at Lapis. "But Lapis can stay with Steven for now."

Lapis sighs in relief as she looks downwards, gazing on the water, "Thank you, Jasper."  
Peridot frowns at Lapis in worry, and fear; feeling sympathy for Lapis, "I hope you can still keep Steven safe for this; I hope you are okay with this."

Lapis looks up to Peridot, smiling from what she just said. And suddenly Jasper rolls her eyes.  
"We need to get going," She commanded, and Peridot gets on the boat, and they sail off away from Lapis and Steven. Peridot sneaks one more look at Lapis, and then they are gone.

Both Lapis and Steven stayed inside the house in silence.  
Steven speaks up, "I need my Steven fingers back!"

"Well, you could just shake it out to bring back your normal fingers," She replied back.  
"I tried, but it isn't working!" And he puts his hand on his forehead in exhaustion, and a part of his forehead turns into a cat.

"Steven!' She cried, and Steven has his arms turn into a cat afterwards. "We need to call Greg!"

* * *

It's a dark, gloomy night, and Greg is listening to his own music, rocking out while cleaning the car wash. He hears a trash can knocking over, and he gets alerted.

He takes off his headset, "Hello?" and he sees Lapis Lazuli crawling out of the darkness, hair disheveled into a mess, dress full of scratch marks, and Steven being dragged on the ground by her.

"Greg…" She looks up at him, tears welling up as she grits her teeth.  
What Greg sees on Lapis' side literally a huge cat ball, so he sprays the water at it. It rolls around until it is infront of him, and it shrinks, revealing Steven under that living cat ball.

"Steven?" he gasped.  
Steven feels more of his body turning into a lot of cat faces, "Dad, help! The cat fingers are taking over my body!" He cried.

"Greg, do something!" Lapis cried, frustrated and worried for Steven.  
"I'll get you out of there, Steven!" He said, and he grabs one of the cats, but the other grabs his arm, and throws him to Lapis, knocking them down.

The cats are bringing Steven inside the car wash, "No, bad cat fingers, bad!" And the cat foots and fingers accidentally touch a puddle of water, making them jump and land on the roof.  
Greg picks up the hose, "Can't you make them go away!?"  
Lapis jumps into the conversation, "Steven tried, but it just made things worse," Her voice trembles, and covers her face with her hands.

The felines on Steven's body are growing bigger, "My life is over. I can't go on adventures with the Crystal Gems, I can't get to eat all of the Cookie Cats they made me, and I will miss having water fights with you, because they hate…" And he realizes something, "Water."  
"They hate water, Spray me again dad!" And Greg follows what Steven said, aiming the hose at him. Steven falls off from the roof, and the felines are rushing towards Greg, but Lapis takes the water off the hose and wraps them in, while Steven is pulling onto the corner.

"It's not enough water!" Steven cried.  
"But Steven, we did our best!" Lapis' voice trembles even more. Spreading her arms, the water that surrounds the cats gets off.

Steven looks around the corner, and sees the car wash's interiors. This gives him an idea, "I'll have to go inside this car wash!"

"We can't do it, Steven. It's too dangerous," Greg grips the hose tightly.  
"Yes, we both love you, and we can't see you get hurt from this," Lapis whimpers and sniffs in sorrow, she grips her chest.

"You've got to, I am a monster. An adorable monster!" He cried.  
"No you're not; you're my son!" Greg shouts, tears well up in his eyes.  
"We both love you, Steven!" Lapis cried.

"Dad, please!" And the cats take over his face, "No!"  
This leaves Lapis and Greg no choice, but to start up the car wash. Greg flips up three switches, and slams one button; Steven goes in the carwash.

Greg and Lapis go inside the car wash and look through the window. Lapis is silently crying from the display, while Greg is comforting her.

After several seconds later, which felt like an eternity for Lapis, the car wash operation is done, and both she and Greg get out of the car wash. What they see underneath all that steam is Steven unconscious from exhaustion.

"Steven!" And she hugs the little boy, and cries in relief.  
However, Greg notices there's one more cat on his head, and he quickly sprays his hose at it. Steven wakes up.

"You saved me?" Steven's eyes widen in surprise.  
"We saved you, Steven." Lapis blurts out.

Steven is sitting on the edge of the pier by the next morning; he is wearing his clothes, fully cleaned and recovered from the yesterday's incident. Both Jasper and Peridot stop the boat next to him.  
Peridot quickly jumped out of the boat and checked for Steven's fingers, "Where are they!?"

"Dad helped me get these cats away," Steven replied, and Jasper shrugs.  
"Oh well. Quartz Child, have you seen Lapis? Peridot is looking for her," Jasper asks.

"She's been pretty sad lately, because of what happened yesterday."  
"Lapis?" Peridot asks with worry, and ran towards the house, leaving Steven and Jasper in the scene.

"Don't worry, Peridot is the most concerned gem when it comes to Lapis," Jasper crouched next to Steven.

"Really?" Steven asks, still sitting on the pier.  
"Yes, and right now she is comforting her. It's best to leave them alone on this." And Jasper walks toward the house, and Steven follows.

What Steven sees inside is Peridot hugging Lapis, and then she softly touches on Lapis' gem, calming her down. They are both sitting on the couch afterwards. Steven opens up the freezer, takes a piece of Cookie Cats, and he sits infront of the counter.

* * *

 ** _Author's Note: This chapter is one of the ones that I had fun working on, I hope it will be the same for the next chapter I will start later on._**

 ** _Fun Fact: Lapis generally has interacted with everyone in Beach City._**


	7. Bubble Buddies

Steven with a helmet on his head, and a bike that he's pushing, is going downstairs to use the bike somewhere. And while he does so, he feels shaking underneath the ground, and he loses his grip on the bike, and runs for it.

Peridot, Jasper, and Lapis walk towards the temple. Peridot was the one talking while they walk, "I don't think they are earthquakes, Jasper. They're too frequent."

"I think I have heard of those Gems in the water," Lapis replied. "I'll check it later," And she hears a bike falling infront of her. "I have never seen a bike from Steven before."

"Yeah, you should have seen me using this," Steven puts his bike upright, and walks around.

"On the sand, Quartz Child?" Jasper asks.  
"Yeah, see you later guys!" He waved at them goodbye as he starts to ride on his bike. He is struggling to pedal, but he gets the hang of it.

As Steven keeps on biking, he suddenly sees a dark-skinned girl, similar to his age, reading a book near the rocky wall beside her. He pedals with more struggle as he tries to stop beside her, and he stops, and gets off the bike.

"This sweet ride…" And he glances at the girl behind him, and she doesn't respond. "High Speeds…" He glances at the girl again, but he fails, "Hand brakes… Electric Blue finish with a Tiger Bell?" He rings his bell on his bike and glances at the girl, but she doesn't respond, and she turns a page over. "I bet kids would love to ride on this bike-" He attempts to ride on the bike, but he fails to do it, and falls down, making the girl notice and glance at him in confusion.

Steven gets really embarrassed by the situation, and runs back to the house, opening up the door. He sees the Crystal Gems peeking from the window.

"What were you doing with that girl over there?" Peridot asks. Steven whines in response.

"Are you trying to flirt with her, Steven?" Lapis asks, her smile slowly turning into a grin.

"I know her, but she doesn't know me!" Steven answered both of the two gems' questions, and Jasper sighs.  
"You two need to let Quartz Child try to talk to that girl," Jasper pulls Peridot and Lapis back by their shoulders, and Steven points at them.

"Yeah, don't mess with my funky flow," He pointed at Lapis and Peridot, who are staring at Steven with wide eyes, shocked at his statement. Jasper laughs from his response.

" _Funky Flow_? That's something new coming from a Quartz Child," Jasper teased, and Steven blushes even more. "Well, you may go talk to her right away. I'll prevent these two from disturbing you," She reassures him.

Steven sighs in relief, and nods at Jasper. He grabs the pink glowstick bracelet from his freezer, still untouched, regardless of the Cookie Cat mess inside. He runs outside to walk towards the girl he knows.  
While Steven is walking outside, away from the house, he hears Jasper saying something to Peridot and Lapis, but he shrugs it off as he walks towards the girl.

"Hi, my name is Steven…" He softly whispered, and the girl notices, but she is confused. "Hi…" He looks up, and there's a rock slowly cracking, which is above the dark-skinned girl. He realizes that it's going to fall down towards her, and he runs for it. "HI, MY NAME IS STEVEN!" He dives at the girl, and suddenly a rose came out around them, and it forms a pink, large bubble, blocking the rock's impact.

Steven was amazed by his ability to form something like that, "Woah, how did I do that?" And he turns to the dark-skinned girl. "I'm Steven, Steven Universe!"

The dark-skinned girl adjusts her glasses, "Connie, Connie Maheswaran." And Connie gets up with Steven's assistance; she observes the bubble around her. "How did this happen?" She puts her hand at the bubble.

"By magic; well, half magic, on my mom's side." He puts a hand at his back of his head.  
"You did this?" Connie stares at him in wonder.  
Steven puts his hands on his hips, "Apparently. I am a member of the Crystal Gems, where we fight monsters and protect humanity and stuff."

"Oh, that's kinda like my dad. He's a cop," Connie waits for a second, pondering. "Well, he's more of a private security guard."

And Steven stares at her in silence as his response.

"So, how long does it usually last?" Connie asks, and Steven stops staring.  
"Oh, I'll put this down," And Steven puts his hands around his gem, and struggles.

"What happened?" Connie glances at Steve's gem.  
"I think it just doesn't wanna go away," Steven shrugs.

"Oh," Connie deadpans, and Steven pushes the bubble, but he is struggling to push.  
Steven turns around as he keeps pushing, "So I don't see you and your dad often."

"My dad works around for a bunch of different beaches," Connie walks towards Steven to help him into pushing the bubble. "So, we're never in the same place long."

Steven smiles at Connie, "I go on adventures with the Crystal Gems, but they tell me it's too dangerous." He looks away, turning his face into a frown. He pushes harder, but he fails, and falls down as the bubble moves an inch.

"Do you always go in a bubble?" Connie asks about Steven's new ability. He stands up.  
"No, this is new. I don't know what this is," He glances up, and then looks at her with reassurance. "But it's okay! I'll get the Crystal Gems to get us out of here!"

And so they kept pushing until they stop by a slope, which gets them to roll downwards.

Steven stops pushing due to difficulties from pushing the bubble, so he puts his hands around his mouth, "Guys! I need help! Jasper!" He shouts, and he sees Jasper walking outside with a confused expression on her face, but she realizes Steven and Connie are stuck in the bubble together, and she calls Lapis and Peridot to follow her, which they did.

The three gems walked over to the two kids, "Quartz Child, what happened?" Jasper observes the pink bubble that surrounds them, and she taps the bubble. "This is interesting."

"Yeah, this is something new that we haven't seen from Rose Quartz," Peridot grins as she checks through her holographic screen.

However, Lapis is frustrated, "Do you two notice that Steven and the girl are stuck in this thing!?" She spreads her arms wide.

"What are we going to do then, Lapis!?" Steven shouts through the bubble.  
"We'll have to try with our powers; I am sorry if the girl beside you is afraid," Lapis glances at the girl, and gives her a small smile. Lapis puts her hand above herself, and water shaped like a fist hovers over Steven and Connie, and she gives the bubble a hard punch, making the two kids bounce and fall onto the bubble, still unaffected.

Steven shoots Connie a worrying look, but he noticed that Connie is staring at the display, stunned by it. But he was interrupted by Jasper punching and headbutting the bubble, and Peridot throwing a bomb at it. The bubble is still unaffected.

"No use, this is really something Steven should be careful about his powers," Peridot says as she types something on her holographic screen, and then closes it after she's done, returning her four fingers to its original place.

"So, are we stuck here?" Connie asks.

"Not really, I have a lot of friends who can help us!" Steven replies back, and Lapis gets an idea.  
"I agree with Steven, we have a lot of friends in this town. We'll go first by the Big Donut," Lapis goes around them.

"Big Donut?" Connie asks, and they are being pushed by Lapis. She catches up with Steven.  
"Yeah, that's where I always eat donuts with Lapis!" Steven replies back, still cheerful.

"I don't eat donuts, because my parents tell me it has transfats," Connie frowns.  
"It's okay, we'll go there just to pop this bubble," Lapis shouted so Connie hears her, and Connie nods as her response.

* * *

"Are you sure this will work?" Sadie asks. She holds the chair above herself.

"It won't hurt to try," Lapis shrugs, and then Sadie slams the wooden chair on the bubble. It doesn't budge.

"This isn't working," Sadie said, as she holds the two, broken wooden sticks. She glances up at Lars, who is still teasing Steven, who is pretty much unaffected. "Lars!"  
"What? I am trying to teach Steven here!" Lars sneers at her.

"What do you mean?" Steven asks to Lars. Lapis rolls her eyes.  
"It's nothing, I'll think of another way," Lapis ponders, and then she comes up with an idea. "I think we have to go to the docks," She glances at the two kids.

"What could go wrong?" Steven shrugs, and Connie glances at him in confusion.  
"The only thing that's wrong is that one of our chairs is broken," Sadie complained. "I'll have it replaced later."

* * *

Lapis stops the pushing of the bubble as they stop by the docks, viewing the scenery of the simple, yet beautiful boats.

"This is a nice place," Connie smiles, and Steven takes notice.  
"Yeah," Steven replies back. Lapis smiles at the two, but she averts her eyes and observes the place.  
"Look at the troller, and a little skipjack!" Connie points out the two boats that she noticed.

"You really know a lot of boats, don't you?" Lapis asks in wonder, being really curious about Connie.  
"Yeah, it's what I mostly do when I am at the beach, besides having no friends, and being just the only book lover in the earth." Connie frowns, and Lapis regrets what she said.

Steven awkwardly shrugs, so he looks to his right. He notices a small, yellow-skinned child eating popcorn, "Oh, hey!" He runs to the small boy, along with Connie. "Onion, Onion!" He kept shouting, and he gets Onion's attention.

However, Onion is staring at the two kids, and then glances at Lapis, who is walking towards them. He gives a small wave to her, and then he keeps eating.  
"Onion, we need a harpoon gun!" Steven shouts, but Onion responds by stuffing his face with popcorn.

"Why do we need a harpoon gun for?" Connie asks.  
"So we can pop the bubble," Steven looks back at her.

"Can we just do something else?" Connie worries.  
"Don't worry, Lapis Lazuli and I am the Crystal Gems," He replies back to her. He turns to Onion, "Har-poon… Gun!" He draws something that would look like a harpoon gun, but it hardly resembles one. He gasps for air to be ready to shout again, but he sees Lapis putting a hand on the bubble, and he stops.

Lapis walks towards Onion, and stops infront of him, "Steven needs a harpoon gun, and can you do that?" She finishes with a soft smile, and Onion nods and gives her a thumb up.

Steven glances at Connie, "I forgot to tell you that Lapis has the most friends in this town, even more than I do."  
"Oh," She replies back, but she notices Onion using the harpoon gun, so she ducks along with Steven on the other side, and he shoots the harpoon gun, but it ricochets off from the bubble, and it hits the troller, sinking it.

"That's another fine people will deal with…" Lapis trails off, nervous about the damages done to the boat. She sees Onion shrugging, and then he walks off, passing by Lapis. He gives her a small high-five as he finally passes by her.  
"Don't worry; we could try the rollercoaster in Funland!" Steven reassures Connie.

"What for?" Lapis asks, glancing at Steven.  
"To break this bubble!" He answered, and Lapis realizes what he meant about his reply.

"You can't do that, Steven. You're risking your life for it," Lapis worried. "I'll try my water powers again," She uses her water powers to bring up a huge ball of water, and it forms into a fist. She brings down her water fist, but she feels a rock hitting her by the back (exactly not at her gem), so she gets hit by her own water fist, and she falls down to the water along with the two kids.

As they hit water while they fall down, Lapis suddenly opens up her eyes, and she uses her water powers to go towards Steven and Connie, who are still inside the bubble, untouched regardless of the splash impact it endured.

Steven notices Lapis as they hit the sea ground softly, "Lapis, we're okay!" He shouted through the bubble, and Lapis sighs in relief and smiles. "Connie, we'll get out of here in no time!"  
"Okay…" She shrugs, even being lonelier this time. Steven and Connie push the bubble together, along with Lapis helping them.

Minutes later, they see a huge worm-like creature that crawls ontop of the bubble, scaring Steven, but it makes Connie be amazed by the display.  
"I've never been up-close to a creature like this before…" She smiles in amazement, loving the underwater display.  
Steven looks at Lapis, who is knocking on the bubble with panic on her face, and she points at the worm-like creature. Steven stares at the creature, which is eating the bright seaweeds.

"It likes the bright stuff!" He grins and glances again at Lapis, but she shakes her head and points at the creature. He checks the creature, and it screams at them, revealing a gem on the mouth. It digs towards the ground and makes a huge crack underneath them.

Both Steven and Connie fall down on the crack, and land on something hard. Lapis swim towards them, and they see that Steven's foot is on Connie's face, and Connie is slumped up on the side of the bubble.

Lapis knocks the bubble, and Steven wakes up.  
Steven opens his eyes, and sees Lapis, "Hi Lapis!" But she points to Connie, and he glances at her.

"Oh no, I am sorry Connie!" He puts his foot off Connie's face, and then adjusts her glasses neatly. He lifts Connie up to her standing position, "Don't worry, Lapis will save us in no time! We'll have to figure this one out-"

"IT'S NOT OKAY!" Connie shrieks, and Steven jumps back in shock.  
"Connie?" He asks, but with concern on his tone of voice.  
"You keep saying that but you don't know what you or this _sister_ of yours who is Lapis is doing! Now we're going to suffocate or starve at the bottom of the ocean. And only my parents will notice that because no one else cares about me!" Her tears well up, and she sits down. "Now I am going to disappear without making a single friend!" And she covers her face in loneliness and in sadness as she cries.

Steven pulls out the glowstick he stored in his pocket awhile ago, "We could be friends." He smiles softly at her. "I saw you at the Boardwalk Parade last year. You dropped your bracelet. I picked it up, but then I couldn't find you." He brings the bracelet closer to him. "I saved it in the freezer, so it would last longer. Incase if I saw you again."

"Oh, you were the kid at the on the car wash float!" Connie smiles from the realization, "You had soap bubbles in your hair." She stifles a smile from thinking about it.

Steven laughs and blushes in embarrassment, "I was supposed to be a scrub brush."

They both laugh from recalling these memories, and Steven takes Connie's hand. "Sorry Connie. If I ever returned your bracelet back then, you wouldn't be stuck in this bubble with me now."

Connie pulls her hand back, "No, it's okay. I'm having fun now."

And everything goes happy for a full 5 seconds as they both laugh from the moment until the bubble pops. Lapis Lazuli helps them swim back to the surface as she holds them, and uses her water powers to move upwards.

The three came back from the surface, and Lapis slowly puts the two kids down, who are regulating their breathing from swimming upwards too fast.

Suddenly, the same worm-like creature emerges from the waters, roaring at them. It slams on the water, making a huge splash.

"Get down!" Lapis shields the two kids and the wave that is above her is frozen in the air by her. "Run away, I'll notify the Crystal Gems about this!" She reminds them, who are running towards the under part of the bridge.

"Steven, hide in the rocks!" Connie shouts over, and she gets Steven's attention.

Steven turns to her, and he sees the worm-like creature trying to catch her, "Why is it chasing us!?" He checks it, and then glances at the glowstick bracelet Connie has. He now realizes why, "The bracelet. It eats bright stuff!" He runs towards Connie.

"Steven!" Connie cries out as he runs towards her.  
"Give me your bracelet, and run away from my direction!" and they both split up.

After a whole minute of running around, Steven stops beside Connie and they view the display of the wormlike creature screeching from being so ever tangled on the posts underneath the bridge. It screams once more, and they held hands for hope. Now it whines in defeat, and a huge cloud of smoke surrounds them.

They hear footsteps coming from behind, "Steven, what happened? What did you do with that girl!?" Peridot gets even more agitated in each word she says.

"He was incredible, and so magical!" Connie cheered, and hugs Steven tightly, grinning from his bravery.  
Peridot suddenly changes her expression of anger to wonder. Walking towards the two kids with Lapis beside her, she asks, "So… Are you going to tell us about her?" She smirks.

"Well Peridot, she's actually a pretty good match for Steven," Lapis replies back, smirking at Peridot.  
"Really?" Peridot sneers at Lapis.  
"Yeah really!" And they giggle at each other, embarrassing Steven in the process. Connie rolls her eyes and pulls back.

Jasper notices them embarrassing him, so she quickly bubbles up the gem, and walks towards them. "You two lovebirds shouldn't be messing with Steven's _Funky Flow_. Get yourselves a moment," She grabs Peridot and Lapis by the back and walks off.

" _Funky… Flow_?" Connie asks, and Steven is left with nothing to say, due to the Crystal Gems embarrassing him.

* * *

 ** _Author's Note: This is really fun for me to work on! You have to wait for the next one, Serious Steven will be coming up sometime._**


	8. Serious Steven

Steven hears a constant ring on his ears, and he wakes up from it. What he sees before him is a giant wreck before him, stalls brushed by bits of Teacup looking seats, and the Crystal Gems sitting ontop of the stalls. He sees people whining in pain, and in confusion.

After a second later, he is pulled by someone and the man infront of him shouts something that he didn't hear.

* * *

 _ **2 WEEKS LATER…**_

* * *

"Quartz Child, this is a very serious mission." Jasper commanded Steven. They are all inside the warp from the warp pad they are teleporting in. Steven is too busy doing backflips in the air as he laughs.

"Steven, you have to listen to Jasper-" But Lapis' nose got hit by the end tip of his ukulele. "Why the ukulele, though?"

"Well, it's because I have it, and I like it, and I use it a lot-" But he stops when he notices that his ukulele is floating away from him, so he swims in the air for it.

"STEVEN NO, THAT'S TOO-" Peridot attempts to warn Steven, but they are already in a green, open and bushy area. "-DANGEROUS!"

Steven falls down on something soft and squishy.  
"Ow…"

"Steven, are you alright!?" Peridot lifts Steven up with her arms. "Report your diagnosis!"  
"What is this red stuff on my body?" He licks one of his arms. It tastes like strawberry, "its strawberry jam!" He grins.

"Well, this is where the strawberries grow, nowadays." Lapis replies to Steven's wonder.  
"Really?" He grins by the thought of having giant Strawberries as his snacks.

"Yeah, we could pluck them off if we're not busy," She smiles to Steven, proud that she is making him happy. It only lasts for a second until the butterflies cover up Steven's eyes, and his arms.

"AH! PERIDOT, GET IT OFF ME!" He whines, and Lapis swats the butterflies off him. "Thanks, Lapis!" And he, Lapis, and Peridot both hear Jasper giggling.  
"I thought this is a _serious_ mission, Jasper." Peridot puts down Steven on the ground and she walks up to her.

"Quiet, Peridot. Just look at Quartz Child," Jasper points to Steven, who is crossing his arms, bringing it near to his face, and attempts to make a cute face. She walks past Peridot, "We'll still need to get that Gem Stone we left from the war." They now walk through the green, bushy landscape. Lapis and Steven are busy plucking the strawberries as they follow Peridot and Jasper.

"This could have been a pretty interesting place for me to check if I was born earlier," Peridot smiles from the display. "Look at how the swords are still intact, and how Earth could make it so alive!" She grins even more from the display. "I wish Pearl could have seen this place, too."

"Indeed, Peridot. Pearl could have seen this display-" But Lapis and Peridot got bumped by Jasper, who is standing still and standing infront of what appears to be a gigantic upside-down pyramid.

"Woah, is that the place where we're going to find what we're looking for?" Steven gets starry-eyed. He passes the strawberries afterwards, and Lapis quickly bubbles it up and stores it to her gem that is on her back.

"Yes, Quartz Child." She snaps her fingers and a smaller pyramid that is the size is Jasper's hand appears, "We need to be serious and careful." She slips the stone in, and a door opens up.

The three walk in while Steven follows them, making sounds of amazement.

"Steven's the best!" He shouted as he is inside the place, and his shouts echo through the walls. "Well, thank you, Temple!" He winked and does a fancy pose.  
"Steven you're a riot." Lapis rolls her eyes after she snorts.

Steven checks out the paintings on the walls, and then he sees a painting of people in an area full of lava, people under the spikes, and people on different kinds of platforms.

"Huh, that's interesting." Steven says, and Jasper glances at his direction. She notices a another upside-down pyramid on a pedestal.  
"Quartz Child, don't." But it was too late; Steven is next to the pedestal and puts his hand on the space under the object.

"It's floating, too!" He grins, but Peridot pulls him back. He slightly poked the object.  
"Steven, you can't just touch the pyramid-" But the whole temple rumbles, and all four of them felt like that they were falling upside-down.

A second later, they crashed onto the ground, and the hole they fell in closes up. They survey their surroundings, and they see torches lighting up, revealing a lot of doorways leading to unknown rooms.

"Looks like we'll have to split up," Jasper commanded.  
"Who should accompany Steven?" Peridot asks.  
"I call dibs on letting Steven go with me," Lapis and Steven mess with each other by tickle fights.

Peridot realizes what's going on, so she pushes Lapis and Steven away from each other. "No Lapis, I realized you two could be at risk if you guys keep messing around in these rooms," She lifts Steven by her arms. "So I'll be the one in charge of accompanying Steven."

"No, Quartz Child will go with me." Jasper firmly said. This set the three gems be in surprise from what she just said.  
"Jasper, you can't just have Steven go with you-" Peridot complained, but she was cut off.  
Jasper grabs Steven by her arms, away from Peridot's, "I am the one in charge here. Besides, you two need each other." Jasper smirks, and this gets Lapis to roll her eyes, and Peridot to blush into a darker shade of green, and then Peridot holds her own arm in embarrassment. Jasper chuckles from the display, and then sighs in relief as she puts him down, and crouches to meet his height, "Quartz Child, this is a serious mission. You have to remember that."

"Understood," Steven nods while he makes a fake-looking serious face. He raises his arms, "SERIOUS STEVEN ACTIVATE!" And he points his arms at the doorway where Jasper is going.

A second later he hears Peridot complaining to Lapis, "This could be the _Teacups_ incident all over again!"  
"Just relax, Peri. He won't mess it up again!" Lapis cheers in her sing-song tone.

Steven turns back and said, "Hey, I've put that behind me!" He spreads his arms to reassure them as he walks backwards, still following Jasper.

Lapis sighs, "Peridot, you'll just have to accept that he's a kid."  
"I know, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about him." Peridot frowns.  
"What about me, then?" Lapis smirks at her as she elbows Peridot's side.  
"Are you for real, Lapis?" They both laugh, and they try one of the rooms.

Meanwhile, Steven and Jasper are still walking through a triangular hallway, with Steven singing a tune.  
" _Serious Steven is going on a mission, with Jasper on his side! And I can't rap, because I forgot!_ " And Jasper chuckles from his rapping.

They get out of the hallway, and they are met with the doorway behind them closing up, and being reinforced with metal bars.  
"Not good, stay with me." Jasper commanded Steven, and he gets beside her. Now the room darkens, and certain tiles light up. "We'll have to stay on the glowing tiles."

Steven nods, "Right." He puts his fingers on both sides of his head, "Serious Steven… _Go!_ " And both he and Jasper ran by stepping on the glowing tiles until they reached the other side.  
"Well, that was easy." Steven snorts from being so _serious_ , but he was picked up by Jasper.

"I'll still have to carry you, Quartz Child." And they both walk in to another doorway.

They go inside a room, which is narrow and long.

Jasper puts down Steven, and the door closes up behind them, surprising him. And the room spins around, making Steven feel a bit dizzy; however, Jasper is unaffected by this, but she notices Steven's expression.

"Quartz Child, you can take a break whenever you want," She reassures him.  
He shakes it off, "No, I'm fine. Let's just keep going," And he stabilizes his balance by putting his fists upward.  
"You could really _trigger_ a trap with that kind of pose," She smirks at Steven.  
"So I should use my mind, then." He puts his arms down, and then he surveys the area, "Triangles on the walls… Could they be spikes?"

"Can be, but be careful." Jasper warns him, but Steven accidentally pushes a hidden button on the wall. Spikes are revealing from the ceiling.

Jasper summons her helmet, "Quartz Child, run!" And Steven runs for the other side, and he trips. He screams by the fact that he was about to get squished, but Jasper saves him by using her helmet to block the spikes.

"Move!" She exclaims, and then Steven runs to the end of the wall. Jasper follows next, making the spikes miss her, and then they are now on the doorway.  
"That was seriously dangerous," Steven says.  
"That was a close one, too." And the door opens up, and she walks towards the other side of the hallway with Steven following her.

They get outside of the hallway, and what they see are axes swinging back and forth like pendulums, each wall, floor, and ceiling is being full of spikes, Floating platforms that are being sprayed by flames.

Steven feels dizziness again as the door behind them closes.  
"Get ready, Quartz Child. This is going to be difficult," She is determined to go through this with Steven.

* * *

 _ **2 WEEKS EARLIER…**_

* * *

" _Get ready, Quartz Child. This is going to be difficult," She faintly smiles. And the Crystal Gems are on the Teacup ride. Lapis is grinning in glee as she raises her one arm upwards. Peridot is holding down her other arm in worry. Jasper is crossing her arms, having a neutral expression. She watches over Steven, who feels a bit pale and sick._

" _My stomach doesn't feel well…" He whines.  
"It will be over soon, Quartz Child." She replies back, but she notices that Steven hasn't responded back, not even a single sound. So she glances at the spot where Steven is. He is about to jump off._

" _QUARTZ CHILD NO!" But it was too late. Steven falls down and crashes on a bald, dark-skinned man with a small mustache. And the ride overloads, and it spins faster until the teacups actually split._

 _Steven hears a constant ring on his ears and he wakes up from it. What he sees before him is a giant wreck before him, stalls brushed by bits of Teacup looking seats, and the Crystal Gems sitting ontop of the stalls. He sees people whining in pain, and in confusion._

 _A second later, the same dark-skinned man picked him up and shouted, "STEVEN, YOU ARE BANNED FROM ALL THE RIDES, FOREVER!"_

* * *

 _ **PRESENT TIME…**_

* * *

Steven wakes up, and he is on Jasper's arms. He turns back, and he notices that they are in the same room, but the axes are dented and are on the spikes, and Lava and Fire aren't being shot out anymore.  
Steven is gently being put down by Jasper, "W-what happened?"

"I went through this place while you took a nap," And a door opens up. "Let's check this hallway," And Steven follows her.

As they go out of the hallway, they are on a circular area with a hole on the ceiling.  
"We're back from where we started!" She growls, and then she notices Lapis and Peridot coming out in separate rooms.

"Are you still okay!?" Lapis asks Peridot.  
"I'm fine, but how the hell does this thing even work!?" Peridot gets frustrated, so she blasts something on one of the doors, and the electric ball returns at the opposite door, hitting at her back by surprise. Because of this, she shouts in frustration.

"I really feel dizzy by being in this place, guys!" Steven complains. "It's just like the Teacups incident all over again!"  
However, this gives Peridot an idea, based on what Steven said.

She stands up, "Lapis, Jasper, and Steven, stand back." She moves to the center of the room, and then pulls out a bomb from her gem, and she puts herself in a safe distance, and then she shoots it up, having the whole ground collapse. They fall afterwards.

Both Lapis and Peridot land on different spinning platforms and Jasper lands on another one, and catches Steven on time.

They survey the area, and what they see is a mass of smaller pyramids orbiting around a huge pillar with a Diamond shaped figure on the top of it.

"This is really interesting to see!" Peridot cheers in glee, so much that she had to explain it while showing a holographic demonstration. "It's Gem-powered mechanism, so it makes the rooms rotate until we end up back from where we started!" And she shows a holographic picture of a teapot, "This is just like the Teacups from two weeks ago!"

"Quartz Child already figured it out!" Jasper shouted.  
Peridot widens her eyes and gets defensive, "Hey, I am trying to make the explanation detailed!" She closes her holographic picture, and gets back into surveying the area.

Steven sees a gem from the pillar make a shine, so he glances at Jasper. "Jasper, I need to get off the ride now."

She nods, and then she lifts him by her one arm, "Serious Quartz Child, _Activate!_ " And she throws him to the pillar, and he lands on it.

He observes the pillar he is on, and he sees a diamond shaped gem infront of him. So he attempts to pull it out. And when he does so, it glows up a bright yellow, a pyramid turns to change faces, and then it gets removed. Steven falls down on the ground.

Lapis checks what's going on by looking down, and she sees him sitting on the floor with the gem on his lap. It glows bright-yellow again, and so as the platforms the other three are in. It slowly fades away and it goes back to the gem that Steven is holding.

They brace themselves for the impact, and the whole structure blows up, leaving a lot of debris afterwards. Lapis is ontop of Peridot, and she gets up, groaning from the explosion. Peridot soon also gets up. Jasper punches through the debris and looks for Steven.

"Quartz Child?" She concerns for Steven.  
"I have it!" Steven grins as he runs towards the Crystal Gems.

Lapis notices him, "Nice one, _Serious_ Steven." And she takes the gem, and bubbles it up.  
"Yeah, you did a pretty good job back there," Peridot pats Steven's shoulder.

Jasper pulls out his ukulele from his back, "I prefer the _Regular_ Quartz Child," She hands it to him.  
He gasps in joy, and grabs it off from Jasper. He tunes it carefully before he starts to use it, and then he gasps.

However, Lapis interrupts him, "You can save that for later, I have the strawberries awhile ago." And she pulls out something from her back, and it shows the strawberries, bubbled up, yet still untouched.

He grabs the bubble, "Thanks Lapis!" He grins even more, and he pops it up, making them fall down onto his hands.

They walk towards the warp pad as Lapis and Steven share the strawberries together, Lapis writing a log report, and Jasper using the warp pad to get them back to The Temple.


	9. Magic Tricks

_**Author's Note: Sorry for the huge delay, I had writer's block for the past few weeks, and I finished my exams awhile ago. But I promise I will keep going with this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

* * *

The Warp Pad shines a light blue shaft, and it reveals The Crystal Gems (including Steven) on the Warp Pad.

"I can't believe you two had to do that!" Jasper is frustrated at Lapis and Peridot. "Look at Quartz Child!" She pointed at him, and it shows him being covered in purple goo.  
"Well, Steven suggested it first." Lapis sighs.  
"To be honest, having water gigantic Blue Whale charged with electricity is the way to take it down." Peridot said, crossing her arms.

"But still, we should have picked another way to take it down without Quartz Child being harmed."

"I'm still okay," Steven sheepishly smiles at Jasper. "But it feels like its getting stiff."  
"Told you so, Peridot." Jasper glares down at her.

Peridot sighs and walks towards the Gem door, and it opens up. "You shouldn't be frustrated at me just because we did something creative, Jasper. Besides, you should have left Steven here if you wanted him safe," And she closes the Gem door, leaving Jasper grunt in frustration.

Lapis walks to the counter and grabs the hammer, and then she softly taps the hardened purple goo, which is on Steven, and then it opens a slight crack. She opens up the crack from the hardened goo, and Steven is free.

"Thanks, Lapis!" He grinned, and Lapis crouches down to meet his height, and to get him to hug her.

"No problem, Steven." She smiles at him, and he chuckles heartily. She turns around to see Jasper smiling a bit.  
Jasper instantly turns her smile upside down as she notices Lapis staring at her, "Even though I may be still angry at you and Peridot for doing that, I can't get mad at you being happy with Quartz Child." And she steps off the Warp Pad. "I'll still have to check something outside, goodbye." And so she walks towards the front door, opens it up, and goes outside as she closes it with a soft click.

Lapis looks at Steven, "Hey Steven."  
"Yeah, Lapis?" He asks, still standing infront of Lapis, who is still crouching.

"I'll be busy for the rest of the day. You could play video games or just watch TV shows for a while," She smiles at him, and then she stands up. Walking towards to the Gem door, she opens it up with her gem glowing behind her, and she gets inside, and closes it afterwards. This leaves Steven alone in the house.

He sighs in boredom, and walks towards his room, and he turns on his Gamecube console, and starts playing a stealth video game called "Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes" for the whole day.

It's midnight, and he is still playing the video game, but he has potato chips on his side and an orange juice on his other side. He was about to reach to an important boss fight until he notices Lapis and Peridot running towards the door outside, giggling. And before he could look at them, the door was already open, and then closed.  
"Huh, what are they doing?" He pauses the game to save his progress, and turns off the TV and the console before he leaves the house.

As he is outside, he sees Lapis and Peridot run towards a slightly damage building, so he chases after them. After a few seconds, he notices that they stop, so he hides behind a rock. He sees them mumbling something, and Peridot and Lapis use magic to change their outfits into that of a magician's, and they walk inside the building. Steven follows after, and he peeks through the corner.

He looks around, and what he sees is Lapis and Peridot walking towards the stage, with the audience cheering for them. They both stand on the stage, and Lapis spreads her arms wide.

"Thank you everyone, for joining with us for tonight's performance!" Lapis shouts and the crowd goes wild as they scream on top of their lungs.

Peridot clears her throat and raises her hand, and the crowd settles down, "Greetings, my fellow humans and soon to be our subjects for our performances. We hope that we will impress you with such magic tricks, and archaic…" She trails off, as if she forgets something. She uses her robotic fingers to make a holographic screen, but her arm was put down by Lapis.

"Hey, no need to memorize the whole thing, you _little_ nerd." And some parts of the crowd giggle.  
"Lapis, I am just a nerd, not a _little_ nerd." She rolls her eyes, and the crowd giggles even more. She eventually stops them as she claps her hands, "Okay, so who wants to be our participant for our magic trick?"

Sadie raises her hand, and runs up to the stage. Lapis was surprised by her act, "Hey Sadie, you're pretty willing to be a part of this performance, right?"  
"Yeah, I do!" She shouted in glee.

Lapis pulls out her hat from her head, and then she shows the top part of the hat, "Do you see that there is a huge hole on this hat, right?" And Sadie nods. She shows it to the whole crowd afterwards. It features the top part of the hat, completely transparent from the top. She puts it away and holds it near her.

She wiggles her fingers, and then she inserts her hand on the hat, and it goes past the hole. But as she pulls her hand back, candies get pulled out from it, and everyone cheers in joy. Steven is amazed by the display.

It has been a few hours, yet a lot of people love the performance. They walk out of the building, and Peridot laughs as she lifts Lapis and spins around.

They quickly notice Steven watching them, so Peridot quickly puts Lapis down, "D-did you just see us being together-" Peridot stutters, but she was cut off by Steven.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" He shouts in amazement, and Lapis shoots Peridot a look. They both look at each other in a confused stare for a second.

"Really Steven?" Lapis slowly smiles for a second, and he nods even more.  
"Can I be with you guys for our next performance?" He forms a star in his eyes, and Peridot shrugs.

"Well, why not?" She uses her magic to return to her original outfit. Lapis does the same with her outfit, and they are back in their original outfit. "Let's do it tomorrow."

* * *

By the next day, they had a "day off" because of Jasper, so they have been giving Steven outfits, if it could fit for the magical occasion. They had tried different types of tuxedos, but they settled for Steven to wear a Tuxedo that has two long tails on its back, and he has a top hat, a wand, and black slacks, still wearing his pink slippers.

"Looks good to me," Lapis stated.  
"Well, let's get the show on the road tonight." Peridot smiles.

Steven grins, "Yeah, let's do it!" But he was pulled by both Lapis and Peridot as they hear a door opening.

Lapis peeks through the edge of Steven's room, but they see Greg on the doorway.  
"Have you guys seen my son?" He said, and then Lapis lifts Steven up slowly by her arms, revealing Steven in a tuxedo. "Why the suit?" Greg asks.

"I'm going with them on a magic show!" Steven grins; he is still being carried by Lapis. She gently puts him down afterwards.

"And you are going to do magic tricks with them?" Greg gets worried.  
"Well, not the ones you thought about," Peridot replies. "We are doing these so called _archaic_ Magical illusions Humans like."

"Well, it won't hurt to see my son become talented for this," Greg smiles, making Steven cheer in happiness.

"Dad's going to watch us do it!" Steven grins at Lapis and Peridot.  
"Yes. As long as we don't mess it up, we'll be fine." Peridot faintly smiles.

* * *

It has been hours since Steven practices a lot of magic tricks from both Lapis and Peridot, and they are now ready. Steven checks the skyline by the window, and it's nighttime.

"Let's go!" He grabs his top hat and wand, and then he walks towards the front door. Lapis and Peridot follow next, but they go outside of the house first, so Steven follows suit.

They are outside, and there is a slightly abandoned warehouse in the distance infront of the three. So they run towards it.

They are now inside of the warehouse, and they see the crowd cheering for them. They also notice Greg clapping for them. Lapis, Steven, and Peridot walk up to the stage and then they raise their hands upwards, making people cheer for them more.

The crowd eventually goes silent as the three lower their hands, and then Lapis speaks up. "Hello, our fellow fans. We have a new guest for tonight… And his name is Steven Universe!" And then Lapis and Peridot step aside to show Steven Universe, who is wearing his outfit for the performance.

He raises his hand and then waves at the crowd as he is smiling, "Hello, everybody!" He grins. The crowd settles down as Lapis silences them.

"Now, I will pull out this card…" She pulls out a random card. "…And I will show this to Steven. He will not say what card it is," And so she did show it to Steven, but he doesn't say a word. She puts it back to her deck of cards she pulled out from her other hand, "Now, I'll shuffle these cards..." She shuffles them up repeatedly, and she stops afterwards. Lapis holds the shuffled deck of cards infront of Steven.

"Now, Slap it."

And so Steven slammed the deck of cards, but Lapis didn't brace for the impact, and thus all of the cards float down to the ground.

The crowd gasps from the display, but Steven has an idea.

"Well… I guess you could say that we… _Hit the deck_?" He sheepishly grins, and then the crowd goes silent, but they soon laugh after a second.

Lapis was astonished by Steven's save, so she ruffles Steven's hair. "Nice one, Steven!" She grins, and then he laughs.

"I gotta admit, it's a pretty good save," Peridot smiles at Steven. He gives her a smile.

"Yeah, and let's keep doing this!" Steven gets even happier as Lapis and Peridot agree.

After a few hours, they have done a lot of magic tricks, including the ones that makes Lapis shapeshift, Peridot using her robotic fingers to give the instructions to the audience, and Steven making jokes incase if they mess up.

Another hour has passed, and the three leave the building, cheering for themselves from the performance.

"We did it again!" Lapis beams from what they did.  
"Let's see if Jasper has another day off for us. We'll ask her when we get back home," Peridot smiles from what she did in the performance, and then the three starts walking towards the house.

They have arrived to their house and they open up the door, but Jasper is standing on the doorway. This gets Peridot to fall down on the floor, and then she hides behind Lapis.

"What were you three doing? I suddenly had to fight off a monster somewhere around the beach!" Jasper exclaimed at them.

"W-we were doing magic tricks," Steven feared as he slowly backs off to Lapis.

"Hmmph, wasting time with those lame tricks?" Jasper scowls at Steven.

"But I thought we had a _day off_!" Lapis shouts at Jasper, but she doesn't budge. It became awkwardly silent for a full two seconds, until Lapis throws a smoke bomb between her and Jasper.

She takes Steven and Peridot's hand as she runs away from Jasper, "Let's run!" She exclaimed, and then she releases their hands, making them finally follow her as she runs.

"I CAN BUBBLE YOU THREE ANYTIME!" And Jasper bolts towards the three, and they are on a chase.

They run through the town, with pedestrians mumbling and exclaiming as the three run away from Jasper.  
Peridot looks behind her, and uses her gem to project a real-life decoy of her, Steven, and Lapis.

Now the "decoys" stop and turn around to Jasper in shock, letting her punch them into balloons. Now she realizes that they are fake and then she glances at the three, who are blending in with the crowd. "You three get back here!" And she summons her helmet, and an electronic baton with a star, glowy tip at the ends. This gets the whole crowd to scatter in panic.

She rushes towards them, and then readies up to stun them with one swing as she jumps, but suddenly Lapis forms a water figure that is similar to Jasper, and then the "Water Jasper" deflects her attack, disarming the gem destabilizer from her.

Now Steven glances back at the display, and then Peridot grabs a handkerchief, and then makes the Gem destabilizer disappear as the hovers her handkerchief over it.

"How did you-" But Jasper was cut off by the "Water Jasper" punching her, knocking her down. This makes Steven and Peridot slowly back off for a bit, until they realize Jasper sighs as she surrenders.

Jasper gets up, and glances at the three, worried gems. "Why?"

"Well, because we just wanted to open up new ways into fighting Corrupted Gems," Peridot stated.  
"With those _old_ , cheap tricks humans have?" Jasper growls.

"Well, yeah. Remember what you said something about _creativity_? Well, you may realize this is not Homeworld anymore, Jasper." Peridot stands up, and then walks off.

"Homeworld?" Steven glances at Peridot.  
"You shouldn't know about it for now, Steven." Lapis replies back. She hears Jasper sigh again, so she glances at her. "Jasper?"

"Peridot is right about it. Maybe I should listen what Rose Quartz told me before she disappeared," And then Jasper stands up, and then slowly walks off.

However, she was interrupted by Steven poking her at the back, so she looks back at him. "What, Quartz Child?"

"Jasper, we are sorry for lying to you. Can you forgive us?" Steven frowns at her so much that she feels a bit sorry for getting mad at him, so she slowly smiles.

"It's okay, Quartz Child. "And then she crouches down by one knee to meet his height, and then they both hug.

However, she notices Lapis and Peridot are staring at them, so Jasper nods. Lapis walks towards Jasper in for a hug, and Peridot walks towards them, but she doesn't hug, but she stares at them.

"Uh…" Peridot awkwardly trails off, but Lapis tugs her tuxedo, making her join in the hug. She wonders why Lapis is near her.


	10. Steven's Lion

_**Author's Note: I apologize for the delay, since writer's block is upon me, and because of that, I didn't get to work on either Arcade Mania or Giant Woman. But I do promise that I will still be working on this fanfic, and thank you for your patience!**_

* * *

A stone pillar collapses into sand, and the Crystal Gems (Including Steven) walk over it, except that Steven is crawling on the sand, pretending to be dehydrated.

"So… thirsty… For water…" He pretends to complain.

"Steven, you're going to get yourself tired," Lapis rolls her eyes at him for being so ridiculous.

"But… This… is how… you're supposed… to act," He keeps crawling, and he hears Peridot laughing.

"Really, Steven?" She smirks at him, "You can't be serious. Don't try to believe in everything you see from those movies made in Hollywood."

"Fine…" And he gasps as he stands up, and he pants for breath.

"Quartz Child, you won't be like that if you just walked instead," Jasper glances at Steven, who is already sweating. She pulls out a water jug from her gem, "Take this, you need it." She passes it to Steven.

This gets Lapis to be surprised, because she was always the one carrying things for Steven, "I thought I was supposed to bring the water jug for Steven."

"This is an exception. I am also looking out for him," Jasper glances at Steven, who is now drinking the water from the jug. He wipes his mouth with his arm once he is done.

"So… Is this the place?" He asks as he looks to the landscape, and it's filled with random pillars being stacked, some of the pillars collapsing into nothing but sand hills. He notices the pyramid at the distance.

"Yes… And it looks like it's out of control," Peridot uses her fingers to project a screen. "It has pillars with no roofs and stairs that lead to nowhere. We should contain it right now," She reverts her fingers to their original place, and then she runs for it. Lapis follows her next, leaving Steven to be with Jasper's side.

"I should go with them too, Quartz Child," Jasper crouches infront of Steven.

"What about me? What if someone eats me?" Steven frowns in terror. Jasper ruffles his hair for a while.

"You will not be eaten, trust me," And then Jasper stands up, and then runs after the two, leaving Steven alone with the water jug on his hands.

"Okay then," He walks away from the small sand hill, and then sits on the pillar, using it to relax his back as he drinks water. He sighs after taking a big gulp of water, "It's so Desert." He pours a bit of water on his hand, and then uses his hand to soak his face with it.

Suddenly, he hears a silent groan, sounding like a lion. Being so alone, he gets afraid. "What was that?" He checks his surroundings, yet no one is around, "Must have been my imagination, then." He was about to drink again until he notices a dark figure with glowy eyes behind a pillar infront of him, and he gasps in fear.

"Who is that?" Steven stands up, and hides behind the pillar, only for it to collapse afterwards. He finally runs away from the dark figure, but trips, "Don't hurt me!" He feared, and then he splashes the remaining water at the figure.

It responds back by slowly walking towards him, making Steven crawl backwards in fear. Suddenly a wall forms behind him, forming a dead end.

"No, NO!" Steven shields his face with his arms to brace for the impact, but nothing happened. He checks the figure, and it reveals a pink lion yawning, and then it shakes its body to shake the water off it, and then lies down in sleepiness.

Steven gets curious about it, and then slowly approaches to the pink animal. As he is about to touch it, its ears wiggle in response, making Steven jump in surprise. He gets closer again, and then the lion wakes up and stares at him. He touches its nose, and then retracts his arm quickly, exclaiming, "Don't bite!" But it doesn't respond.

Steven pets it, and then the lion likes it. This fascinated him, and then he kept petting the lion.

"You just wanted attention, didn't you?" He grins at it. He places his hands on its mane, "Your mane is so soft, too!" And he slumps onto his mane like a pillow. He sits up afterwards, "So, you're from around here? I'm just here on business." He then sits ontop of its back, and then the lion keeps cleaning its paw.

He lies down on the lion's soft mane, "I like your pink fur, it's like you're the cotton candy of the jungle!" And then the lion responds by turning over, making Steven fall down to its side. Steven laughs from its act, and then gets up to its back again, "I always wanted an animal friend, but I thought it would be a gold fish, OR A DINOSAUR!" He raises his arm upwards to emphasize, but he then puts them down, "But I guess faith had other plans for Steven Universe," He puts his hand on the lion's paw, but then it uses its paw to put Steven lying down beside him.

"He is truly my best friend, Lion!" Steven whispers in happiness, until the temple explodes into sand, leaving Steven and Lion to be both buried in the sand. They both stand up and shake the sand off themselves. Steven overhears the Crystal Gems talking in the distance.

"That tactic you suggested is pretty effective, I like that." Jasper told Peridot with pride on her tone.

"I can get creative with these things, you know?" Peridot then passes the Gem to Lapis.

Lapis carries the Gem with her arm, "Yeah, you're pretty nice with this, Peri!" She playfully punches Peridot's arm.

Peridot laughs at her, "Don't embarrass me, Steven is here- OH MY STARS WHAT IS THAT LION DOING HERE!?" She jumps back and points at the Lion. She readies up her bombs.

"Uh, it's my new friend, Lion!" He shakes himself off him, and then stands up. "Right Lion?" He sheepishly grins at him, but what he got as a response was a sneeze, and then Lion licks a paw nonchalantly. It licks Steven's face afterwards.

"Aww… Steven has a new friend!" Lapis smiles at him.

"I believe that won't hurt Quartz Child, I guess we could let him keep it," And this sets Peridot to grunt in shock.

"Jasper, you can't just let it eat Steven," Peridot grits her teeth at Jasper.

"Do you bother to observe what Quartz Child and the Lion are doing?" Jasper points at the two, who are staring at Peridot.

"Fine, but we'll just leave it there first," she walks towards the Warp Pad, and then leaves. Lapis glances at Steven, and then she sighs.

"I guess Peridot's right," she frowns at Steven, but she smiles at him to reassure. "It's okay. We'll visit him later," she places her hand gently on Steven's shoulder, and then she releases it, and uses the Warp Pad. Jasper walks near the Warp Pad, waiting for him.

Steven looks at Lion with sorrow on his eyes, and then he stands up, "I know it's hard for both of us to be apart, but I hope we have the chance to meet again, Lion." He walks towards Jasper, and he is now on the Warp Pad with her.

"You really know that we can visit him in this desert, right?" Jasper asks, making Steven beam in happiness.

"REALLY!?" He imagines stars on his eyes, and then Jasper activates the Warp Pad, instantly transporting them to their house.

"Yes, Quartz Child. But it will be next time," She walks toward the Gem door, and she opens it up with her Gem. "You can do anything you want, we won't be doing anything in this day," And she gets inside her room, and closes it. Lapis opens up the door.

"Hey Steven!" She smiles at him. She is carrying the same Gem that she captured awhile ago.

"Hi, Lapis!" He smiles back, but he hears scratching on the door. "What noise was that?"

"Hold on, let me check," she walks towards the Door, and opens it up, revealing Lion at the porch, "Hey, your friend is here!" She steps aside to show more of Lion's figure.

"LION!" Steven beamed and runs towards him, hugging the pink creature. But suddenly, a Gem door opens up, and he hears a high-pitched scream.

"WHAT IS THAT LION DOING HERE, AND HOW DID HE GET HERE!?" She points her arm-turned-cannon at Lion in fear, "WE JUST GOT HERE FEW SECONDS AGO!"

Steven ponders for a second, "Magic?" He answers as he turns around to face Peridot. This sets Lapis to laugh at his response.

"Oh Steven, it could be actually Magic, or maybe it's just that there are more of these kinds anyway," She shrugs, so she lets Steven step aside to let Lion in, but she was interrupted by Peridot.

"I will harm that creature if it harms Steven or _you_ generally," She grits her teeth and glares at Lion, who is staring at her without any expression. Now, Lion stares at Lapis, making her confused from his act.

"Hmm?" She glances at him, but then he leans his head onto where Lapis is holding the Gem, "You need this?" She raises it.

"Don't let him touch that!" Peridot growls even more.

"Well, I'll just place it on the couch to keep it safe," She shrugs even more, relieving Peridot, but it makes Lion more annoyed, so he growls.

"Lion wants to play with me!" Steven is too oblivious at the situation going on between Peridot, Lapis, and Lion as he drags the pink animal outside, which relieves Peridot even more, since she disliked Lion, regardless of his nonchalant acts.

Lapis notices this, so she speaks up, "I knew you didn't like Lion after all," she faintly smiles at Peridot as she sits down.

"Yeah, I always see lions as dangerous," Peridot walks towards the couch, and then sits next to her.

"It's okay, Lion doesn't hurt Steven, after all. Let's just give Steven a chance," And then Lapis grabs the Gem, and then lays her head on Peridot's shoulder, which sets Peridot to be surprised.

"Don't put your head on my shoulder!" She harshly responded, and Lapis laughs from her reaction.

* * *

"Lion, you will like this place! It's got fish that you like, and pizza that everyone likes, all in one!" Steven Universe grinned as he lets Lion follow him to the Fish Stew Pizza place. He stops by the door, and then Lion sits behind him. "Just wait here, everyone will freak out!" He beams as he walks inside the store, and he sees Ronaldo using his laptop, and on the other table is Onion drinking soda.

"Hey guys!" He raises his arms upwards, and then Ronaldo and Onion notice him, but they quickly get back to their usual tasks afterwards. "I'm doing okay, you know? Just getting some pizza," He walks to the counter, he glances at the two workers behind the counter, "Coffee," He glances at the old, dark-skinned man carrying pizza boxes, and then Coffee leaves. "Kiki," He glances at them.

Kiki, the dark-skinned girl using the cash register, glanced down at Steven. "What do you have in mind, Steven?" She asks.

"Large pizza, extra fishy," Steven orders, and then Kiki types the prices on the cash register.

"You must be hungry," She replies back at him.

Steven chuckles a bit, "I'm ordering for two," He raises two fingers to clarify. But he was interrupted by Ronaldo spitting his coffee on the laptop.

"STEVEN IS PREGNANT?" Ronaldo shouted at the top of his lungs in surprise.

Steven glances back at him, "I don't think so, but I have a giant pet Lion outside!" He raises his arms up to exaggerate.

"Are you _Lion_ , aren't you?" Kiki makes a smug face as she questions him.

"Funny, Kiki. But for real there's a huge pink Lion right outside!" Steven exclaims, and then Ronaldo goes outside first, along with Onion following him. Kiki follows the two afterwards.

"This is amazing!" Ronaldo shouts, making Steven smile, thinking his plan worked, "IT'S INVISIBLE!"

"No, it's pink!" Steven replies back as he gets outside. He notices that Lion isn't there.

"How could he be invisible _and_ pink?" Ronaldo retorts as he runs his hand through the air, faking that he's believing what Steven said.

"There's nothing out here Ronaldo, Steven was _Lion_ ," Kiki raises an eyebrow at Steven for lying to them. She walks back inside, "Sorry for using the same pun twice."

Ronaldo walks back inside too, upset from Steven. "I bet that you're not even pregnant."

"No, I am telling the truth! He's real!" Steven tries his best to prove his point, so he turns to Onion. "You believe me, right?"

What Steven got in response from Onion was an angry glare, which makes Steven sad. He proceeds to get back inside and eat the pizzas all alone in embarrassment.

* * *

Steven walks back to his house, all and alone from the incident awhile ago. It's not too long until he hears Lion scratching on the door.

"Lion?" He squints his eyes to look further, and he realizes it's Lion. "Hey," He walks up the stairs, trying to get the pink animal's attention, "HEY LION!" He shouted one more time, and he finally has Lion's attention, "You left me in the pizza place; I look like a fool! I had to eat whole two pizzas by myself!"

However, Lion doesn't respond back as he breaks down the door, surprising Peridot as she shrieks.

"GET THAT AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW, STEVEN!" She gets her arm cannon, Lapis shields Peridot.

"Well, does he really need the Gem this time?" Lapis asks to Steven, and he glances at where Lion is looking.

In a flash, Lion roars at the two gems, knocking them over, and having the Gem fall off the table. He walks towards the Gem.

Steven gets upset by the animal's actions, "Lion, that's not cool!" And then he notices the gem that is between Lapis and Lion, and he realizes what Lion needed, "The gem…" And he runs towards it and picks it up.

"This gem? You wanted this?" Steven gets a teary by the realization. "I was trying to feed you and play with you, because I thought we were best friends…" He frowns as he sniffs. "Does this mean nothing to you?"

What Lion did next was going near Steven, but he misses as Steven runs towards the doorway.

"Steven, wait!" Peridot raises her other hand in protest, but it was too late. Steven is now outside of the house, gripping the Gem on his arms.

"Lion, if you want it, you can take it!" He grunts as he throws the gem very far until it hits the sand. He realizes he made a mistake as the sand quakes, forming pillars and stairs made out of sand. He runs towards the Gem's location, but then he stops to see the display before him.

"STEVEN!" Peridot shouted through the distance, and it gets the boys attention. "STAY WHERE YOU ARE, WE'LL GET YOU!" As she finishes her statement, sand blows through between them, blocking their way.

"We should have bubbled it earlier," Lapis frowns at Peridot.

"It's okay, Lapis." Peridot smiles at her, but then she gets ready as she looks at the now formed Sand palace. "Jasper and Lapis, let's move." And then the Crystal Gems run for Steven.

* * *

Steven jumps through another wall of sandstorm and gasps for his breath. Infront of him is a castle-like building, with the Gem on top of it.

"There it is, the Gem. I have to get it off," he runs through a flight of stairs, and as he reaches to the top of it, it crumbles, leaving him a quick second chance to jump off to an ascending pillar. He eventually does, but it leaves him screaming for help.

Meanwhile the Crystal Gems are faced with running to a wall made entirely of sand, so Jasper's the first one to headbutt it, but the attack didn't do anything, not even a crack. Meanwhile Lapis tries out using a ton of water to put it down, and the wall crumbles into a brown sludge.

"Looks like we need you for this," Jasper glances at Lapis, and then the blue water gem nods.

"Very well, Jasper. And I'll be the one to rescue Steven," Peridot orders, and then Jasper nods.

"Good to know. I'll be getting the Gem out of that castle," And then she starts running towards the castle where the Gem is located while Lapis and Peridot follow her.

* * *

Steven climbs up a pillar, and then jumps to another one on his left, and jumps to his right to land on the flight of stairs.

As he lands, the stairs start to collapse, and he runs to the top of it, worried that he won't catch up. He jumps onto an ascending pillar, and looks to his left.

"There it is," But he hears the column collapsing beneath him, so he jumps and grabs onto a horizontal pillar growing out of the side of the castle. Spikes grow on the ground, and his grip is slowly getting loose. Fortunately for him, a small block raises on Steven's grip to "save" him, but then it cracks, making him fall. He cries for help as he falls, but he was caught by something fast, and he realized it was Lion who saved him.

"Lion!" He exclaimed as Lion jumps to pillar to pillar, avoiding the spikes. "You didn't come here to steal the pillow; you came here to protect us from it!" He smiles from the fact that Lion is there to protect them. "And that can be also the reason why you were scaring them." He pondered.

Lion responds back by roaring at the castle, and Steven looks at his direction. He notices that the walls are forming around the Gem, protecting it.

"There, it's building its fences! How are we going to get up there?" Steven asks Lion.

What Lion did in response was roar at the spikes, making colourful waves as it makes the spikes crack down into pieces.

"Yep, sounds good." Steven nods at him, and then Lion now gallops towards the castle, "Let's go!"

As they both go for the castle, three pillars rise to stop them, but Lion roars at them quickly, knocking them down, and one of the pillars falling down on the castle's top edge. They traverse through the pillar, and they are nearing the Gem.

"Now Lion!" Steven commands to Lion, and Lion roars at the Castle, cracking it into pieces. They hit through the castle, and they escape quickly with the Gem on Steven's hand.

Both Lion and Steven shout as they float through the air before they land hard on the ground, let alone Steven rolling on the floor, hugging the Gem on his hand. He notices The Crystal Gems emerging from the sand, and they stare at him. Steven nervously chuckles at them.

* * *

"You two should have bubbled this in the first place," Jasper complains as she bubbles the Gem.

"I have to agree with Jasper here. It's our fault," Lapis shrugs.

Steven glances at them, and then looks at Lion. He feels sad by the fact that Lion won't be with him next time, "Lion, I guess this is goodbye. We had some good times, but I am sure you have to do other magical stuff to smash with other magical boys," He turns away to hide his sorrowful face, but he notices Jasper infront of him. "But Jasper, can we keep him?"

"It would be a yes, Quartz Child." She smiles at him, and then he gasps in wonder.

"Are we really going to let Steven keep Lion, Jasper?" Lapis asks her.

" _You_ kept Peridot," Jasper smirks at Lapis, and then Lapis turns into a blushing mess, while Peridot didn't catch what Jasper said.

"What did Jasper say?" Peridot asks Lapis, but then she was shrugged off by her.

Steven beams even more as he hugs Lion, "Yay Lion! We can play games together!" And then he uses his hands to make Lion "wink".


	11. Arcadia

_**Author's Note: I apologize for the "almost two weeks" delay for this chapter, life and work has gotten to me, so as Writer's block. But just remember that I will still work on this, so don't worry!**_

* * *

The Crystal Gems (including Steven) walk inside a dark, gloomy cave. They carefully stroll around with Jasper on the front, as they all listen for sounds of threat inside the cave, but what they all hear was Steven's noisy footsteps.

"Silence, Quartz Child." Jasper whispers at Steven, who is wearing a dark gray Sneaking Suit, fitted with a navy blue vest and a pair of dark gray boots.

"Sorry Jasper. This suit I am wearing is a bit stiff," He keeps moving his arms around, which makes Lapis giggle for a bit.

Peridot glances at Steven's direction, "It's to prevent you from catching a cold, Steven," She bluntly states the fact about his Sneaking Suit. "And you are supposed to walk carefully; I don't have enough materials to mask the noises from your boots."

"Okay then, Peridot." And Steven slightly lowers his stance, "Stealth." He said.

Now they are walking through the cave once again, and just a few seconds Lapis imitates of what the symbol "!" should sound like.

Both Peridot and Steven jump in shock from the noise, yet Peridot glares at Steven, "I swear to Rose Quartz this will sabotage the purpose of this mission if you don't keep quiet!" She angrily growls at him, but she notices that Steven is on a cliff, and a part of it is crumbling into pieces. "Steven!"

He keeps moving his legs erratically, until he says, "Stealth," and then he falls down the cliff, knocking on one rock, and then continuing to fall again. His fall was stopped by Peridot, who used her Beam to keep him suspended in the air.

She rotates Steven to an upright position, and she places him gently on the ground. She jumps down from the cliff, and then observes Steven for injuries.

"You are not hurt, after all. I am glad," She stated, but she was interrupted by an unknown roar across the cave, and a huge creature comes out of the hole and lands infront of them. It roars at them again to attempt to scare them. It did work on Steven, but not on Peridot. She gently pushes Steven back as she slowly approaches the monster, "Stay back."

"Peridot!" Steven cries out as he was pulled back by Lapis and Jasper, letting Peridot take the situation.

"I'll take care of this," She pulls out two bombs from her gem, and then waits for the monster to do something. It roars, and then Peridot throws one bomb at its side, and then at its other side, blowing up in separate times. It shows its weak spot as the monster raises upright, roaring, and then Peridot charges with arm cannon on her hand. The monster tries to launch drills at her, but then she deflects it with her arms. She finally gets close to the weak spot.

"EAT THIS YOU CLOD!" And then she punches the monster with her arm cannon, making the monster poof into a smoke, reverting to its original gem form. She walks back towards the Crystal Gems while she bubbles it up.

"That was awesome, Peridot!" Steven grins at her.

"Well, yes, but my actions sabotaged the purpose of the said _Stealth_ mission," she replies back at Steven with a bitter frown on her face.

"This mission would be more time-consuming if you weren't here to accompany Quartz Child," Jasper shrugs, but then she smiles at Peridot. But then, they hear drills, and then they notice the smaller drills that were previously on the creature are now escaping, "This won't be good."

"To be honest, they will wait it out until the next day. For now, we'll need to get back to the Temple," Peridot replies calmly to Jasper.

"How did you know that?" Steven asks her.

"I mostly do a lot of research in my time, including this day." She replies back to Steven, "Although it makes me tired and frustrated."

Steven gasps in reply to Peridot, "Then why didn't you try to have fun?"

Peridot walks towards the exit of the cave, and then the others follow. She continues her speech, "Well, my first attempt-"She notices Lapis frowning at her,"-was a bit nice, but I wasn't _slightly_ interested in it." She bites her lip afterwards, regretting what she just said.

"Well, why don't you try going to the Funland Arcade?" Steven suggests to Peridot as he smiles at the idea.

"Maybe, I'll have to think about it."

"Peridot, you might want to look at Quartz Child," Lapis snickers, and so Peridot looks back at Steven, who is pouting, with pure sadness in his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, Steven." Peridot is a bit disgusted by Steven's action.

"Please…" He whimpered, and this gets Lapis to giggle at what he said. Peridot sighs after 5 seconds of staring.

"Fine, but we'll need you to change your outfit," She says to Steven, and he yells in happiness.

"Yay!"

* * *

Steven gets inside the house, and then he takes off his Sneaking Suit, and then puts on his usual outfit. He opens up the cabinet and grabs pouches full of coins.

"Do you really need that amount of money to get into that place?" Peridot asks. "No wonder why they say capitalism is bad," She rolls her eyes as she chuckles.

"Not really, but I have a lot of them just in case," He grins at her, and then Peridot shrugs.

"Well, let's do it, Steven! Peridot, go with me!" Lapis grabs Peridot's arm to follow her as she walks out of the house, leaving Steven to rush and grab his Cheeseburger Backpack, stuffing it with pouches of coins.

"Wait up, guys!" He cried as he goes outside of the doorway, but then he glances at Jasper. "Are you coming with us, Jasper?"

"Maybe I'll just stay outside of the place, just to make sure we're safe," She replies back, and then Steven nods at her.

"Okay then, I'll go with them now Jasper! Bye!" He runs outside to follow the running _couple_ , who are already at the front of the arcade. He pants for breath afterwards.

"I have the coins," He slowly said as he gasps each word.

"Well, I guess I could let you give me recommendations on this place," Peridot tells Lapis and Steven about how unfamiliar the place is for her. The three walk inside the room as the boy thinks of the suggestion.

"I'll go first!" Steven takes Peridot to a fighting game booth. Peridot wonders about what Steven is showing her.

"So, what is this device?" She observes the booth, and then she pokes some buttons, and then the joystick.

"It's an arcade booth, it's where we use in this place," He replies back at her, and then Peridot glances at Steven, and then back to the booth.

"So how do you get this to work?" Peridot points at the screen, which says _"You need 1 Coin to start!"_

"By using the coins by putting them in this slot!" Steven inserts two coins in the slot, allowing him to play with Peridot. Now Steven picks a fighter, and he readies up. It took him a few seconds to realize that Peridot is not touching the controls, "Peridot."

"Yes, Steven?" She glances at Steven, who is staring at her.

"You are supposed to pick your character," He replies back at Peridot.

"So what should I do?"

"You have to use the joystick to move around, and then press this button to select it," He points at the button on the left, where it is next to the joystick. Peridot follows by using the joystick, and then she selects a robotic fighter, "You picked one of the best fighters, Peridot!"

"And how is this _best_ fighter?" She asks again to Steven, unsure of why he said that.

"He has the most powerful attack combo! It makes his enemies drop down their health by 25% If you just do a Forward, Punch, and then Kick." He explained, and then Peridot agrees with her choice of fighter, "Just make sure to do it a lot."

Now as the game loads up, it shows Steven and Peridot's fighter before they start to actually play.

"So Peridot, what we should do in this game is to fight by punching and kicking, press the first button for punch," And so Peridot followed Steven's orders, and Peridot's fighter hits Steven's by a punch. "And then go for a kick by the second button," Peridot follows, and then Peridot's fighter hits Steven's by a middle kick, "And then you move around using the joystick." Peridot uses the joystick in a variety of directions, and it surprised her on how it followed her commands.

"This is interesting," She smiles from how the game works.

"Now, let's do it!" Steven readies up, and then his fighter tries to land a punch, but it was interrupted by Peridot's fighter constantly punching and kicking Steven's fighter, until it gets knocked out. "How did you do that?"

"Eh, you just told me the trick about this fighter. Also, I learn fast," She readies up for the next round along with Steven, smiling as he knows a lot of fighting combos in his fighter

The announcer in the game says, " _Round 2, Fight!_ " And Steven's fighter charges at Peridot's, but it was interrupted by Peridot's fighter stopping him in his tracks by constantly punching and kicking, while moving forward.

"Woah, you are really good at this!" Steven compliments her, in which Peridot snorted in return as her response to his surprise.

She keeps winning the rounds in the game when Steven thinks he's going to win, but she finally wins by one more round.

The game finishes and now has a countdown timer for Continuation, but the two choose to ignore it, "Now I finally understand why humans love recreation so much." Peridot smiles at him after she lets Steven get off the booth.

"Yeah, because they're really fun!" Steven runs around, until he notices a booth with a huge screen, and the pedestal near the booth are four, different coloured rifles wired into the game, "Oh, this is also a good one, you should try this with Lapis!"

"Why should I play with her?" She asks him, but they were interrupted by Lapis patting Peridot on the shoulder, making the Green gem look in the wrong direction.

"Because I am also good at playing video games, Peridot. You are new to this," Lapis chuckles as she grabs one of the rifles from the pedestal, the rifle butt resting at Lapis' shoulder, her upper body rotated a bit to the right to aim properly, and she readies up. Peridot scoffs in annoyance as she observes Lapis' posture, and then grabs another rifle from the pedestal. Steven follows suit.

Steven places two coins in the slot, and then the game says _"PRESS THE BUTTON TO START!"_

Now the screen shows a Spy themed cutscene, four spies in different colours walk into a dark hallway until they are all ambushed by enemies shooting at them. Now the cutscene finishes, letting the players do the playing.

Lapis quickly shoots at the top row enemies, and Steven shoots at the left side, leaving Peridot to be confused.

"Peridot, you need to aim and then pull the trigger," Steven says as he keeps shooting the virtual enemies.

Peridot musters an "Oh," as she realizes, she adjusts herself so the iron sights line up, and then she pulls the trigger, killing one of the enemies. "This is much more interesting than that fighting game," She smiles as she keeps on shooting the enemies. Later on, she's actually having fun playing the game with Steven and Lapis.

Afterwards, they were done with the level they are on, and then Steven and Lapis puts down the toy guns, leaving Peridot as they are unaware.

As the two leave, a pale, tall teenager with an upwards haircut that is similar to an onion, a blue hoodie with a gray t-shirt underneath, Orange, baggy jeans with sea-foam green tennis shoes, walks to Peridot.

"Hello, fellow human," Peridot glances at him.

"That, was something cool," He smiles at her, which creeps her out.

"Thank you?" Peridot raises an eyebrow at him.

"Name's Sour Cream," He offers a handshake, and Peridot secretly sighs in relief.

"My name's Peridot," She accepts the handshake offered by Sour Cream, but his fingers miss Peridot's. "It's mostly robotic."

"Cool," He pulls his hand back to stop the handshake, leaving the two to be near each other in awkward silence. He raises a pouch full of coins, "You really like this place?"

Peridot suddenly raises her eyebrows in surprise, but she recovers back to her normal expression. "Well, yes, it's interesting," She smiles at him as she accepts the offer and takes the pouch. She grabs one of the coins from it, only to get confused. "How do you use this?"

"Eh, place it in the coin slot," And then Peridot follows his instructions, and the game is ready to start. She grabs the gun infront of her, and then she starts shooting virtual enemies with great skill. She feels great that her fast learning skills paid off.

This leaves Sour Cream to widen his eyes in surprise from her performance that he even called his friends to come over and play with Peridot on the arcade.

* * *

It has been hours since The Crystal Gems waited for Peridot.

"Where is Peridot?" Lapis gets concerned about her, after playing with Steven by the shoreline as she makes shapes of animals with her water powers.

"She could be finished with the game at this time," Steven shrugs.

"Well, we'll have to get inside the place. We can't risk going on missions without her," She walks inside the arcade, but then the drills from the previous mission emerge from the ground, making several holes at once as one of them rushes at Lapis.

"We forgot about these drills!" Lapis dodges as she takes out water from the ocean, and then slams on the drills in one, large, circular motion, making them hit on the ground. They recover quickly as the drills emerge in a different position.

"We need Peridot's bomb to deal with them!" Jasper shouts as she blocks them with her Gem destabilizer, poofing them one by one, but with great struggle.

"Guys, she's still in the arcade!" He exclaims at the Gems as he points at Peridot, who is still playing at the shooting game booth she is on, but with a lot of teens chanting her name as a cheer.

"What are they doing!?" Lapis cries out as she runs inside the arcade, and then she grabs Peridot quickly without the Teenagers noticing.

"What are you doing?" Peridot shouts as she shakes her arms and legs around, while Lapis is firmly holding her in her arms.

"We need you to help us!" Lapis glares at Peridot.

"But the game…" She glances at the booth, frowning.

" _I_ need you to save us from this threat," Lapis glares at Peridot, making the green gem feel disgust in herself, and then Peridot now sighs.

"Fine…" She nudges Lapis to put her down, and then the water gem does. Now, Peridot pulls out two bombs, but she clicks on a certain area of the bomb, changing its shape to a small, can-like object with a lightning bolt on the sides of the bomb.

"PREPARE YOURSELVES, CLODS!" Peridot shouts as she slams the bombs to the ground, making a huge, electronic wave. The drills suspend in the air, but then they get electronic shocks, and then they poof up, falling down to the ground.

"It's time you came back," Jasper pants as she drops the gem destabilizer, her weapon slowly fading along with her helmet. She bubbles the enemies up as she tries to clean up the mess.

Peridot sighs, "Sorry. I had a lot of stress from the past few days." She frowns by the fact that she got carried away, and by the fact that it got the rest of the Crystal Gems to be in danger whilst her being carried away by such human activities.

"It's okay. I guess you needed the break," Steven gives a reassuring smile at her, in which she notices.

"Yeah, I guess I needed that," She slowly smiles from his action, until she notices Lapis hugging her. "Lapis!"

Jasper chuckles from the situation Lapis and Peridot are having right now, "Okay you two, we really need to get back into the Temple." She turns to the Temple, and then starts to walk off as she was done with the last gem, but they were interrupted by the same dark-skinned man, they have seen him before from the Tea Cups incident.

"The whole city has no electricity, and you four are banned from this arcade for two weeks because of this!" He furiously said, making Steven jump back in shock from his furious rant.

"Mr. Smiley, if we can talk this out…" Lapis calmly tries to coax the man to prevent the ban, but he was too angry to listen.

"No, and I won't listen to your talking, because as what I said, the whole town has no power!" He angrily walks back into the arcade, leaving Lapis agape from how ineffective it was from trying to get him to calm down and fix things.

"I'll have to help them, be right back." Peridot runs as she gets back inside the arcade, leaving Lapis, Steven, and Jasper to be outside again.

"We tried our best, right?" Steven tries to smile to make the situation better, but what he got was Lapis sighing in sadness.


	12. Giant Woman

_**Author's Note: To be honest, this is one of the chapters I really, REALLY wanted to work on, because I really love to see the dynamic between Lapidot. And yes, I also had alot of fun working on this chapter, so it will be a treat for everyone. Have fun reading!**_

* * *

"I call it a B-4!" Lapis exclaims as she guesses Peridot's ship.

Lapis and Peridot are playing Battleship, while Steven is sitting on those high-seated seats as the "umpire" of the match, holding dart guns called "NERF".

Peridot widens her eyes in surprise, but her expression quickly changes as she realizes that she has one more ship left on her board, and that Lapis has one left. "Nice try, Lapis. But you haven't realized that I HAVE ONE MORE SHIP LEFT!" She puts a mark on C-4, where Lapis' last part of the ship is. Now Lapis' ship is taken down, and Peridot wins. "Victory is mine!" She shouted in pride, but her victory was short lived by Steven shooting darts at Peridot's face, letting out a shriek from her mouth, and letting out a laugh from Lapis.

"That's what you get for winning," She smirks at Peridot's annoyance, and then she hears a dart being shot, and she grabs the dart that is being shot by Steven.

"Aw, you still get it everytime, even when I thought I could hit you," He slouches at his chair in defeat.

"Don't worry, Steven. There will be the time," She reassures the boy, making him shoot another dart, surprising her. He laughs afterwards.

"Got you!" And they both laugh in unison, as Peridot checks her screen as she removes darts from her face. She gets a message from Jasper about their next mission.

"We'll have to move within 10 minutes, Lapis." She stands up as she cleans up the mess, "New mission for us."

"Do we have to make another strategy?" Lapis raises her eyebrow at her, until Peridot shakes her head.

"We'll have to use fusion," She glances at Lapis, who is slowly turning her face of surprise into a face of excitement.

"You're really serious about this?" She smirks at the green gem, and then Peridot rolls her eyes.

"Well, yes. But we'll still need to prepare," She stands up, but they were interrupted by Steven humming as he tries to think of something.

"What's a fusion?" Steven raises his hand, and then Lapis beams.

"Well, it's basically me and Peridot mashed together-"

"Does water and electricity have to _mash_ together?" Peridot asks impatiently, irritated that she didn't get to explain first.

"It can be if you put a little _salt_ in it," She smirks at Peridot, in which she gets a green, blushing mess in return as a response. She glances at Steven again, "So Peridot and I mash up together to form Turquoise. It's basically a Steam-Powered gem that is a combination of our powers and intellect, so we are smart and powerful at the same time. The Powerful one's me."

"Yes, she's correct about it. But in order for us to do it, we have to do a fusion dance," She uses her holographic screen to demonstrate, and there is a figure of Lapis and Peridot dancing. "You see, if both of us do a fusion dance together that synchronizes and fits us. We can fuse together."

"So, will you guys do it now?" He asks one more question, and then this flares up Peridot into embarrassment, while Lapis flares up into excitement.

"Yes!" Lapis shouted, while Peridot shouted, "No!" at the same time. This gets Steven to laugh.

"Oh man, you two are really funny!" But he hears a Warp Pad activating, as the light rays shine through the window. This indicates the boy to run towards the house, "Jasper's here!" He gets inside the house, seeing Jasper hold a lot of strawberries.

"You need to have something on your stomach, Quartz Child." She passes Steven a strawberry the size of his hand, amazing him.

"Woah, I'll wash this first! Thanks Jasper!" He runs to the kitchen, and then rinses the strawberry before he eats it. Peridot walks inside the house, looking at Jasper with a determined look.

"So you found the Geode Beetles of Heaven and Earth?" Peridot asks her.

"They're in several places, we have to split up for this to be done quickly," Jasper said as she glances at Lapis, who is walking inside.

"I'm going with Peridot," She smirks at the green gem, in which Peridot rolls her eyes in return.

"I'm still going with or without them," Peridot sighs.

"Very well, Perdot. You will be going with them, I'll be moving out alone," Jasper places the strawberries on the counter, letting Steven store them in a jar.

"Why?" Lapis asks her.

"One of them is located at the bottom of the boiling lava lake, and I am the only gem strong enough to get in there and retrieve it," and then Jasper summons her safety goggles by her gem, and then she glances at Peridot. "You'll have to get the Heaven Beetle at the top of the Sky Spire; it's easier for you three."

"I guess I would be _excitinger,_ " Lapis said, trying to tease Peridot.

"It's actually _more excited_. Please watch your grammar," The green gem raises a finger (not the middle one) at Lapis, signaling her to stop. She walks towards the warp pad.

"Oh come on, I was teasing you!" Lapis pretends to whine as she uses her wings to move to the warp pad, and then she lands.

Steven runs after them, but he hears Jasper calling him. He turns around to see her firmly staring at him, and then she gives him a soft smile.

"Quartz Child, you need to keep the harmony between Lapis and Peridot, can you do that?" She asks him in a friendly tone, and then Steven nods.

"No problem!" He gives two thumbs up to Jasper, confirming his duty for the next mission. He finally stands on the Warp Pad with Peridot and Lapis on it. "Today's going to be all about Haaarmooo-" And the Warp pad activates, teleporting them to the Sky Spire. "-Neeeeee!" And he crashes down after being suspended in the air for a second.

He observes the landscape, seeing a range of mountains lined up with one, long path connecting them to the most top of the mountain, where the Heaven Beetle lives. "So is this where the Beetle lives?"

"Yes, and we have to secure it," She steps off from the Warp Pad, landing on the ground.

"It's all the way up there to the top," Lapis added. She follows Peridot as they both walk through the path.

Steven is the last one to get off the Warp Pad, and he ponders about Turquoise, "So, when you fuse, do you turn into a _Giant_ giant woman, or a regular-size giant woman?"

"Steven," Peridot bluntly called his name.

"Peridot, do you control the left arm and Lapis controls the right arm?" He asks, and then Lapis laughs from his question.

"Really, Steven?" She glances at him.

"But these are important questions!" He whined, as they walk up the stairs, "Or how about you guys fuse and give me a piggyback ride?"

"Probably not," Lapis responds back at him, still surprised by his sayings.

"We only fuse when we need to, Steven. This isn't the time to do it," Peridot grits her teeth in annoyance, due to Steven.

They have reached to the top of the stairs, and Steven isn't done asking questions about the fusion.

"So what if you guys drink water, does it give more steam?" He asks again, and Peridot sighs.

"Yes, but it is not necessary," But Peridot was stopped by a goat making a sound, and then biting one of Peridot's robot legs. "DON'T TOUCH ME YOU FILTHY ANIMAL!" She backs off and aims her cannon at the goat, but it doesn't respond. Lapis laughs so hard from Peridot.

"I told you there's danger in this zone! Quick, form Turquoise before it eats us all!" He hides behind Lapis, and then he smiles from his own joke.

"Oh Peridot, you should have seen your face." She wipes a tear off her face after laughing so hard, which makes Peridot elicit a groan as she blushes a dark green. She glances at Steven, who is crouching on his knees, disappointed as he sighs, "Steven?"

"I'll never get to see Turquoise," He frowns as wind blows by, rustling his hair. " _All I wanna do is see you turn into, a Giant woman, a Giant Woman! All I wanna be is the one who gets to see, a Giant Woman."_

* * *

Steven, Peridot, and Lapis climb on a steep flight of stairs with great struggle on their grips, with the goat on one of the rocks in the mountain.

 _All I wanna do is help you turn into a Giant Woman,  
A Giant Woman!_

Lapis slips on her grip, and is about to fall, until she was rescued by Peridot, who is using her beam to grab her hand. She notices that Peridot is giving her a concerned look, and then she shifts to her relieving smile.

 _All I wanna be is someone who gets to see a Giant Woman._

The three are now finished climbing up the stairs, and then they see a small stream of water that leads to a waterfall. Luckily, there are rocks that will help them get across by it.

"I'll move in first," Peridot runs as she leaps from rock to rock, but then she is about to lose her balance.

 _Oh I know it'll be great and I just can't wait to see the person you are together._

Lapis uses her water powers to save Peridot from being shocked by the water by just forming rails beside Peridot. This gets the green gem to look at Lapis in awe, and then the water gem shrugs as she blushes slightly, scratching her back of her head.

 _If you give it a chance you can do a huge dance because you are a giant woman._

Now they have gone past the waterfall area, and they are crossing over the gap by the bridge. Now, Steven is bouncing from the bridge just for fun.

Unfortunately, Lapis and Peridot both get worried and irritated so much they both shouted "STEVEN STOP BOUNCING!" at the same time, and they both glance in surprise on how they unite when the boy is in danger.

 _You might even like being together and if you don't it won't be forever._

Steven hugs both of them by his arms, and then Lapis and Peridot stare at each other so much, that they had to look away as Steven notices.

* * *

Now they are on the second to the last part of the mountain, and Steven is riding on the goat that followed the trio earlier.

" _But if it were me, I'd really wanna be a giant woman, a Giant woman! All I wanna do, is see you turn into, a Giant Woman~,"_ He finishes singing, and Lapis applauses as she claps.

"I gotta admit, you still have that nice singing voice," Peridot smiles as she remembers how similar he is to his mother, but then she hears the goat, and she glances at it. The goat is jumping from platform to platform with no trouble, leaving Steven.

"WAIT UP STEVEN JUNIOR!" He shouted at him, and then prepares to jump, but he was halted by Peridot.

"Wait Steven, I am not sure if you can make those jumps, they're too far!" Peridot worries, but Steven realizes as he comes up with the same idea since they arrived into this place.

"Oh, you two should form Turquoise, and then lay across the rocks like a bridge, or jump over them!" He smiles at the idea as he glances at Lapis and Peridot.

The green gem sighs, "Fine. But this will only be once," She walks backwards, and then turns to Lapis as she offers her a hand, allowing the water gem to dance with her.

Lapis accepts the offer, and then she grabs her hand, pulling Peridot in by a twirl, and then letting the green twirl outwards with a step backwards, and then Lapis dips Peridot, but then she drops her.

"Hey, I thought we will fuse!" She is frustrated by Lapis' jokes.

"You know, we could fly at this rate," and then Peridot realizes.

"Oh, yeah." She scratches the back of her head, nervously chuckling.

Lapis activates her water wings, and then grabs Steven as she flies towards to the other side. She waits for a full 10 seconds to wait for Peridot to catch up.

"Wow, you are really this slow," Lapis chuckles as Peridot lands.

"I'll still need to tweak my limb enhancers." She passes by Lapis, as she goes to walk to the top.

* * *

"I can't feel my legs anymore," Steven pants as he is on the top of the mountain, along with Lapis and Peridot by his side.

"At least you are exercising," Lapis chuckles at her joke, in which Steven whines in return.

"Not funny!" But he notices a small temple infront of them, "Look at that!" He runs to it, and inspects the structure. It's smaller than Steven, "It's a tiny temple!"

Peridot walks towards Steven, "This is where Jasper told us where the Heaven Beetle should be," But she notices some parts of water hovering. "Lapis please don't bother the water in this area."

"Okay then," She puts down the water, and then walks to the temple, inspecting the structure.

Steven laughs, "Look at this, it has a little beetle bedroom, little beetle bongos, and a little baby book!"

Peridot looks through the other window, "But the Heaven Beetle's supposed to be here, it could be anywhere!"

"Maybe we should do a large scan of the area," Lapis looks around, determined.

"Only I can do that, but thanks for the idea." But Peridot hears the goat whining over and over, until a huge bird flies over and eats the goat.

This saddens Steven, "My son…"

Peridot readies up her bomb and throws it at the bird, but the creature deflects it.

"Oh clod," She runs inside as she grabs Lapis and Steven. Now the bird is pecking at the roof, and checking through the holes inside.

"That thing just deflected your bomb!" Lapis worried about the situation.

"This might be a perfect time to fuse to Turquoise!" He grins at the thought.

"Excuse me!?" Peridot said.

"I guess he's right. We'll have to do it," Lapis walks to the middle of the area, and then she offers Peridot a dance, in which Peridot walks towards her, and then she puts her left hand on Lapis' waist, and the other holding her hand. Lapis firmly places her right hand on Peridot's shoulder, and then they start dancing by side steps, and then Peridot twirls Lapis over, and then she hugs her. Peridot now let's Lapis out, and Lapis extends her other hand, and then her other arm, until she spins to Peridot, and then the green gem dips her as they kiss.

"Woah…" Steven was amazed by the performance as the two now form into light, but then they got interrupted by Peridot messing the dance up as she accidentally lets go of the water gem's back.

"I can't get the hang of that part because of my Limb Enhancers!" Peridot frowns at Lapis in fear.

"It's okay, we'll do it again. But I'll do the dipping this time," She hastily offers Peridot a dance, but Steven hears the bird squawking.

"Guys, I might never get to see Turquoise if you guys don't fuse," And he looks upwards. "And I might get eaten, _by a giant bird_!" And the bird actually did catch Steven by its beak, scaring the two.

"Steven!" Lapis cries as she reaches out for him, but Peridot halts her.

"We'll have to do it now, no dancing this time." She notices that Lapis is forming teardrops on her eyes, whimpering. So she wipes them off with her fingers, "We'll save him this time, together. Okay?" Peridot smiles, and then Lapis sighs as she nods weakly. Now Peridot slowly lifts Lapis' chin as she tilts her head, and then their lips touch together as they start to fuse.

* * *

Steven rolls backwards by its force and then crashes into a pile of bones. He looks around the place, and he is inside of the bird's mouth.

"Steven Junior!" He cries, but he notices the goat safely standing on a pile of trash, chewing on something yellow. So he runs towards it, "How could you eat in a time like this-" But he notices that the yellow object the goat is chewing, is actually the Heaven Beetle.

"Wait, is that the Heaven Beetle?" He reaches to the goat, but it doesn't want to, "Let me see it." He grabs it, but the animal doesn't want to let go, "Hey. Be a good boy, and give me the magic bug!" But the trash knocks down, making them fall down to the ground.

Steven gets up, and he has gotten the Beetle, "I got it!" But the goat comes back to him, furious as he constantly squawks. "No, you're a bad goat! You're no son of mine!" He exclaimed, but he sees a hole being made, and then steam coming out of it. More steam punctures the holes in the place, scaring Steven.

But as he runs away, he suddenly drops to one, newly made hole, making him fall down. But at last, he is rescued by a figure that is a combination of blue and green, its faces having light-green freckles. And as her accessory she wears green safety goggles, much like Peridot's, and her haircut is mostly put down with a pointy bang on the front, and a point at the back. And then Steven notices that the figure that rescued her also has machinery as a vest on her body, and she has launchers next to her two arms.

"Turquoise?" He realizes that the one who rescued him is the fusion of Lapis and Peridot. Now he is being carried by her as she dodges the birds, and then she jumps high as she gets off the top mountain. And as Turquoise is still suspended in the air, she turns around and shoots at the birds that are chasing her with her cannon, bubbling the birds with Steam, and immediately sending them to The Temple.

Now they land on the ground, and Turquoise puts Steven down. "Stay here, I'll take care of this," She combines her two arm cannons, and then she places it on her right arm, and aims, charging up a ball of electricity. Now she shoots at it on the flock of birds, now stopping them, and they disappear. She smiles at Steven as she looks back afterwards.

As she is walking towards him, Steven is staring at her in awe, from seeing that Lapis and Peridot could fuse together this time. And now he asks a question, "Do you still know who I am?" He softly asks, still afraid that Turquoise might not know Steven.

Instead, Turquoise giggles. "All you wanna do is see me turn into…" She softly sings in a mellow voice.

"…A Giant woman," Steven beams at the thought. But then he realizes about the Heaven Beetle, so he grabs it from his pocket and gives it to her. "I got the beetle."

"Nice one, Steven." She ruffles Steven's hair, and they walk back towards to the Warp Pad with no trouble.

* * *

They return to the Warp Pad, with Steven chiming, "We're back!" in a cheery tone. Jasper turns back with a towel bundled on her hair, seeing Turquoise.

"The Heaven Beetle?" Jasper asks.

"I have it," And she walks towards Jasper as she passes the Heaven Beetle. Steven realizes that Turquoise is slightly taller than Jasper.

"So, how does it feel?" Jasper asks again to Turquoise, having a soft smile.

"It feels… _Perfect,_ " Turquoise smiles as she looks away.

"I knew you would like it, Peridot."

"Wait, _what_?!" And then Turquoise suddenly defused, revealing an embarrassed Peridot, and Lapis giggling as she blushes.

"Hey, I didn't mean about confessing that feeling when we fused!" Peridot tries to deny, but Lapis smiles even more.

"Oh come on, Peri!" Lapis laughs as she brings Peridot closer.

"Not infront of these people, Lapis!"

Jasper already placed the Heaven Beetle on a safe place, and then she bubbles it up. "I noticed you two would be fusing anytime," She gives a soft smile at Lapis and Peridot, and then she glances at Steven. "How did you get them to fuse?"

"By being eaten by a giant bird!" Steven proudly states, and then Jasper walks away.

"Nice one, Quartz Child."

And now Peridot and Lapis stare at each other, before they both help each other to stand up.

Lapis glances at the boy as she says, "Steven, we'll be visiting the Sea Spire. You will stay here for now," And then Steven nods as Lapis and Peridot use the Warp Pad, leaving Steven alone in the house.


	13. Too Many Birthdays

_**Author's Note: It's been one month since I haven't posted any chapters, and it's one of my longest in terms of fanfic hiatuses. I am going to have finals by this week, which means I will be very busy. But the good thing is, after the exams, I will have my Christmas break!**_

 _ **And I do apologize for the wait, but I hope this one's worth it.**_

* * *

The Crystal Gems were walking around in Lapis Lazuli's room, after they all agreed to Steven in hopes of finding some useful things in the oceanic room. Lapis uses her water powers to make way so that the others can safely walk around in her room, since her room is literally an ocean.

"So, there could be any devices that I can repair, so we can use them," Peridot walks with Steven, but the boy suddenly runs. "Steven, get back here!"

"Guys, I found something!" He grabs something from the neatly placed pile, and what lies on his hand are a Gameboy, and a Nintendo 64, and a Playstation 2, along with pairs of controllers with them.

"Are those Greg's former devices?" Peridot squints her eyes as she grabs them as she inspects.

"Yeah, he introduced me these things," She adjusts her pile, but then Steven notices a painting, so he grabs it as he passes the three devices to the three gems, who are starting to hold a device each on their hand.

The painting features a tall, huge woman with rosy pink hair raising a Pink Flag that bears a similar logo to Steven's shield, and a huge pink sword on her other hand, Jasper holding a musket with her summoned helmet, a tall, white-skinned figure who is slim, is accompanying the leading woman, Lapis Lazuli holds water on her hands, determined, and lastly, Peridot, without her limb enhancers, is holding a pistol.

The painting is wonderful to see, but what Steven first said was, "Why do you guys look like old-timey people?" Although he first noticed that it was her mother who led the flag.

Lapis and Peridot glance at him in surprise, and then Lapis chuckles.

"Steven, _we_ are old-timey people."

"What, really!?" He places his hands on the sides of his face to show how surprised he is.

"Yes really. We don't die from old age, except from Food poisoning, or damage to the gem area," Peridot points to her gem part.

"But do you celebrate birthdays? Because those candles might be too much for your birthday cakes," he ponders as he taps his chin.

"We don't celebrate birthdays," Jasper keeps a straight face as she says it, making Steven gasp in surprise.

"Really!?"

"We're too busy protecting humanity, though." Lapis sighs at the thought, remembering the times where she has celebrated Greg's birthday in some years.

"But right now it's the best time!" He grinned, and then the three exchanged glances, "I'll pledge that we'll have a lot of cakes, candies, and ice cream all in one for your birthdays!"

After Steven said that, Lapis glances at Peridot and shrugs at her while softly smiling.

Steven grabs the crown, and then he hovers it over Lapis, who is wearing a king-like cape as her accessory.

"And the birthday queen is… Lapis!" He places the crown on Lapis' head, making her smile.

"Thanks, Steven." She glances at Steven while she's smiling. He grabs the toy microphone, and then walks around the place.

"Dad made me that suit, because it brings me great birthday luck!" He grins, but then Peridot clears her throat.

"Steven, I know it's pretty nice of you to celebrate these _'birthdays'_ for us, and to make us happy, but would it be a better for us if it's a bit mature?" Peridot asks him, but then before she notices Lapis, the blue gem has already walked towards to Peridot, making the green gem glance at her. After a second of staring, Lapis pokes Peridot's fingers with the whistles for the birthday celebrations, agitating the green gem into embarrassment.

Lapis runs away from Peridot, laughing as the green gem shouts, "GET BACK HERE YOU CLOD! YOU SHOULDN'T BE TEASING ABOUT MY FINGERS OR I'LL REPORT YOU TO JASPER!"

The two run around the party place, until Steven passes a wooden bat to Lapis.

She grabs the bat in confusion, "Wait, am I supposed to hurt Peridot!?" She looks at him with worry.

"No, you are supposed to use it on the piñata!" He replies, and then Lapis makes a long sound for realization.

"Oh thank Rose," The two sigh in relief as Lapis grabs the bat.

After a while, Lapis is blindfolded with a bat on her hand, ready to hit the piñata.

"Ready?" Steven holds a stick with a piñata hanging on his hands.

"Yeah," And she starts swinging at the air.

"A bit higher," He said, and then Lapis pulls the bat downwards, slamming the piñata to the ground, and eventually exploding into bits. "Woah…"

"That's bit overkill if you ask me," Peridot shrugs as she picks up a piece of candy and inspects it. "So, what should we do with this candy?"

"You could either keep it or eat it," He replies back, and then Peridot passes it to Lapis, uninterested.

"No thanks. But anyways, are there any other parts of this celebration?" She asks him, and then Steven nods.

"Well, I haven't thought of it…" Steven frowns as he struggles to think of a game.

"Don't sweat it, Steven. I'll find another way for this," She ruffles Steven's hair as she thinks of a solution. "Well, there are more jokes to hear in the next party, right?"

Peridot is now wearing a king costume for her party, and it has Lion behind the Crystal Gems, who are sitting infront of Steven. The boy is wearing a loose tank top, a rainbow wig, and makeup to resemble a clown.

"I don't see how that is funny," She glances at Lapis in worry, but then the water gem places her hand at Peridot's shoulder.

"It's okay, just lighten up a bit." She gives a comforting smile to Peridot, in which she gets sigh in return.

"Who wants to hear some jokes?" Steven grabs a piece of paper from his back, and then waits for a response from the Crystal Gems, but they never said a word. "Well, here's a joke. What does Jasper think when Peridot and Lapis fused?"

"Wait, you actually had a thought about this?" Peridot defensively glares at Jasper. The orange gem shrugs as she prepares for what Steven's going to say.

"She thinks it's a perfectly _shocking_ combination!" He grins after that, and then Jasper snorts as Lapis laughs, leaving Peridot in a blushing mess.

"Really!?" Peridot frowns at Steven in embarrassment.

"Not exactly, that was Quartz Child's joke."

"To be honest, I have a feeling Steven's right about that," Lapis ponders, making Peridot groans.

"Lapis!"

"Oh, looks like our birthday celebrant is annoyed today, let's cheer her up!" Steven grabs a pie from the picnic basket, and then walks back to Peridot. "Peridot, do you like Pie?"

She smiles, "Yes, it's the mathematical constant known as 3.14159-"

"No I mean this pie," He gestures what he is holding, and then she stops.

"Well, I also like pie," Peridot gives a warm smile to Steven.

He slowly walks toward her, "Yeah, I also like pie. But I hope nothing happens to it…" And then he "accidentally" trips, having Peridot gasp in shock.

"Steven!" She shouts, and then she uses her beam to rescue Steven, but this only gets him to hit his own face with the pie, splashing it across his face.

"Ta da!" He exclaims. "It's funny!"

This takes Peridot almost five seconds to process what is going on, and then she gets confused even more. She leans onto Jasper, "I-I still don't understand what's going on," she whispers to her.

Jasper nods, and then glances at Steven. "Quartz Child, Peridot said she's done partying."

"What, really!?" Steven frowns at her.

"Sadly, yes." She nods slowly at him, and then he turns around and pulls out his wig out of his hair.

"This isn't going well like it should," He frowns. "But I have to pull out the ultimate birthday."

Steven lays out small cars for the Gems to drive on, and then grabs 4 pieces of Kazoos. Afterwards, he pulls the three gems that are blindfolded by Steven, mostly for the purpose for being surprised by the ultimate birthday. He turns towards them.

"Jasper, since you are the birthday celebrant for this time, you may remove your blindfold first," He allowed her, and she removes the blind fold. Peridot and Lapis follows, and they all both have confused looks.

"Uh, why are the vehicles small?" Peridot said the only question that popped up in her mind, after seeing the cars on the ground, and the toys Steven is holding.

"It's Kazoo racers!" He said, "You can pick any car you want, and then you get a Kazoo!" And he blows it by the mouthpiece. "You can pick any color you want!" He passes the piece to Lapis.

"As much as we love to, Quartz Child, but it's a negative."

"Why?" He frowns, since the only birthday celebrator of this party is declining the offer.

"Our age is only an illusion. We don't really get used to the human culture a lot," She explains, and this gets Peridot and Lapis to stop what they are arguing about and stare at Jasper in awe.

"Jasper, you can't just say that!" Peridot worries for Steven as Jasper looks at her.

"It's true. Peridot also said that this ritual may be for children," She glances at Lapis and Peridot, and then she glances at Steven.

"Really? People really want birthdays, no matter how old they are," And he pulls one of the small cars. "You're never too old to try!"

"We're just too large for this," Jasper looks away.

"But you guys can shapeshift, right?" He frowns at them. "You could just sit on it, and then... and then…"

"I don't shapeshift," Peridot blankly looks at him, but then she hears Lapis shapeshifting onto the car, making her smaller.

"Come on, Peridot!" Lapis calls her, but then Peridot scoffs at her.

"I won't be riding with you on a miniscule vehicle like that!" Peridot looks away at her.

"Then remove something!" Lapis teases her, causing the green gem to be annoyed.

And then this gets the _couple_ to argue to each other, only one teasing, and the other being annoyed about it.

"Don't mind them, they're like that all the time," Jasper snorts as she adjusts the crown on her head. However, Steven frowns as he stands up, his back still stuck to the car.

"Nevermind… I guess you guys have something better to do…" Steven trails off as he leaves, making Lapis and Peridot notice what was going on with Steven.

"What happened to him?" Lapis asks.

"I guess he needs to be happy again."

"But how?" Lapis asks her.

"We'll give him a party by a few hours. Quartz Child might like it," Jasper commands.

It has been an hour since Jasper and Lapis helped each other make and adjust the party supplies as Peridot explains the instructions, and they are all done with the preparations. Pastries, Games, Balloons, and they are all set with the party.

Lapis thinks of party games to play first, but then she notices Peridot trying on the king suit. She giggles from the display, "Are you wearing that?"

"Does it look like I am _not_ wearing it?" She struggles to put it on as she fixes up the cape, but then Lapis offers her help.

"Here, let me help you." She adjusts the cape, making Peridot softly cough from it, and then she finishes adjusting it. She places the crown on Peridot's head, and now she wonders. "Why do you need to wear that in the first place?"

"Eh, I began to like it," Peridot smirks as she walks around the place, inspecting the whole area. Now she still realizes that Steven hasn't arrived to the party yet. "…Where is he?"

"Quartz Child is still not here, apparently." Jasper glances at where Peridot is looking.

"So… Do we have any idea on what to do first on this… ritual?" Peridot gets confused over the whole thing, but Lapis speaks up.

"I guess we could try playing some party games first. Let's try this board game, Citchen Calamity," She brings up the board game, and then Lapis and Peridot come over as they now start the game. Jasper sits near Lapis, while Peridot is currently using the manual, and is near to Lapis.

Thirty minutes have passed since the three are playing the board game, and yet they are still struggling over the confusing game.

"This is too confusing," Jasper complains as Peridot keeps reading through the book.

"How does Steven understand this game!?" But they both stopped when they hear a loud thud on the floor, and they see Steven. The only change with what they see is instead of a young, happy child, it's an old, wrinkly man, making them gasp in shock.

"Quartz Child!" Jasper exclaims as she runs towards him and kneels beside him. Lapis follows suit, and she checks his face.

"What happened to him!?" Peridot is still shocked from the display.

"He's okay, but he's really, _really_ old right now," Lapis frowns. "Should we call Greg?" She looks up to Peridot.

"I don't know, Lapis!" She groans in anger, still not believing that her antagonizing parties due to her misunderstanding lead to Steven becoming very old. "We can't die from aging, but Steven's also a human, like Greg!"

"My birthday suit might help…" He wheezes, and then Peridot realizes what he's saying, so she takes off the Cape and the crown, and then she clips the cape onto Steven, and then places the crown gently on his head.

"Feel better, Quartz Child?" Jasper firmly places a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks, guys… But I think this birthday suit is all out of birthday magic…" And then she realizes that it isn't working. He slowly stands up, "We had a good run, huh?" And his breathing gets raspier as he ages faster, causing Peridot to clutch Lapis' arm from the display.

Jasper grabs the two, "More birthdays for Quartz Child, NOW!" And she pulls them.

After a few seconds, Steven hears Lapis saying, "Hi Steven!" And she has shapeshifted into a blue, small car, with Jasper riding on the shapeshifted car. Unfortunately, Steven isn't responding to it, causing Lapis to return to her normal form as Jasper stands up quickly.

"Kids… Stuff…" He said, making Lapis realize what he meant, so she turns into a piñata.

"It's piñata time!" She reluctantly said, but Steven still doesn't respond as he ages even faster.

"It's not working!" Jasper grits her teeth as Lapis returns to her original form. Lapis Lazuli runs to Peridot, who is already wearing a clown costume.

"Peridot, get over here!"

"I can't. The display is too horrifying!"

"FOR STEVEN!" Lapis pushes Peridot towards Steven and stays behind her, leaving the green gem to be horrified by the fact that Steven's about to die.

Peridot's breath goes shaky as she slowly moves toward Steven, holding a pie on her hands. She can't handle the sad display that she is witnessing.

"I… I- I mean _we_ baked you a pie… It-it is delicious… I hope nothing happens to it," She tightly closes her eyes as tears flow down her eyes, filling the visor with her tears. Finally, she can't take the display anymore, so she drops the pie, hitting it on the ground as it makes a mess. She kneels down and sobs loudly as she tabs off her visor, and covers her face.

"Peridot, are you trying to kill him faster!?" Lapis cries out as she runs infront of Peridot, facing her. Suddenly, Peridot hugs her tightly by the waist as she keeps crying. "Peridot!" She kept shouting out her name as she is upset over the whole thing.

"I can't take it anymore!" Peridot chokes on her words, still preventing Lapis from releasing her from her tight grip. Suddenly, they hear someone walking to Steven, and it was Jasper, carrying him in her arms. And in a split second, Jasper summons her helmet and arches her head back, causing Lapis and Peridot to take action.

"PERIDOT, NO!" They both cried out as they stop Jasper, making the leader realize what's going on.

"What were you doing, Jasper!?" Peridot glares at Jasper, who is still in a state of despair.

"…I thought violence was the last resort to everything," She sighs, but then she notices Steven aging a bit more, closer to his death. Shocked from it, she drops him.

"Now he's dying; why did we tell him we don't like parties!?" Peridot glares at Jasper.

"I don't know, _**you**_ were the one to tell Quartz Child that one!" Jasper points her finger at Peridot's gem.

"Jasper, you were the one who got him to question about this thing!" Lapis argues back, defending no one but herself.

"Do you think you have nothing to do with this, Lapis?" Jasper glares at her this time.

"Well, I didn't say anything bad about the parties, because I know about them-" She was cut off by Steven, who reverse aged to his adult form.

"Could you guys at least _control_ yourselves!?" He angrily said in his deep voice. "I can't believe you guys are acting like this!" But then he realizes what he has said towards them, and his age reverses even more as he realizes that he has yelled at them. "Oh, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have yelled… But I can't stand seeing you act like this!"

Peridot was shocked from the display, never seen him change his age constantly, but Jasper steps in.

"Quartz Child, you're changing!" She still keeps a bit of hope in herself.

"Steven, I think your age is constantly changing. I think your gem reacts to your state of mind!" She warns him.

"Steven, please don't feel old!" Lapis cries at him.

Steven's age changes to his teenager part of him, "But I wasted your time…" And then he changes to an elder, "We all have such little time…"

The three gems call his name, and then Peridot speaks up. "Steven, you have to be like yourself. Sweet, considerate and occasionally obnoxious!"

Steven smiles at her as his age reverses to his teenage form, "Really?"

"Yes!" Jasper replies.

"Why else would you throw those parties!? We loved them!" Lapis finally beams.

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" and Steven finally reverts to his normal age. "I am pretty great!" He beams as his arms rest on his sides, and then Lapis and Peridot hug him tightly as they cry tears of joy.

Jasper walks towards him and then puts her hand on one of his shoulders, "We'll work on the rest, later." Because of this, Steven lifts up his oversized shirt, and then realizes that he still has long legs. He laughs as he stands up and then sits down repeatedly.


	14. Lars and the Cool Kids

**_Author's Note: I apologize for the huge wait. But remember this, I'll still be working on this, and I will work on the next one soon._**

 ** _Have fun!_**

* * *

It was a cloudy morning for The Crystal Gems, as they walk towards to a pit full of living, moving moss. They frown over the display, knowing that the moss will never get its chance to bloom into flowers.

Jasper sighs from the display, "Sorry Rose Quartz, but I guess we won't be taking care of these moss anymore."

Suddenly, they hear Steven jumping off the ledge and landing one of the stones in the pit. "Woah, this is cool!" He moves his hands to near the moss, which were moving towards Steven.

Lapis and Peridot gasp in shock as they watched Steven jump on the rocks as they said, "Steven, no!" in pure shock and panic. Luckily, Jasper throws a huge boulder at the stone next to Steven, and then he goes flying in the air.

Peridot grabs him in the air by using her beam, and then she gently places him next to her.

"Don't you touch that lost cause!" She frowns angrily at Steven.

"Why?" He kindly asks Peridot, but then Jasper speaks up.

"It's the living moss that your mother took care of," She crosses her arms, observing the display.

"My mom planted this stuff?" He glances at Jasper.

"Yes Steven," Lapis confirmed. "Your mom used to bring the moss up to the hill. But now, the moss is getting out of control," she points at the bird who is perched on a piece of wood, but then retreats as the moss tries to invade it.

"But it won't escape, right?" he asks.

"Yes," Peridot answers. "But we need something to keep people out of this."

"Like… A police tape?" He shrugs at her in uncertainty.

"Hmm, why haven't I thought of that?" She finally beams at the idea, and then grabs a small bunch of electronic devices from her gem. Afterwards, she places them on the ground, and throwing them at different entry points, and then she activates them by pressing a button on her arm, showing a green, holographic screen that says _"KEEP OUT!"_

"Even though it isn't exactly police tape, that should let them know, considering they're going to follow the rules."

"Woah…" Steven is amazed by the display.

However, Lapis is unsure of the idea. "Um, Peri?"

"Yes, Lapis?" Peridot glances at Lapis.

"Are you sure this plan's going to work? Because there are _a lot_ of rule-breaking teenagers in this place," Lapis ponders over her friend's idea.

"Don't worry, they will actually follow the rules this time, since they look dangerous." Peridot insists over her idea.

"Well then, I guess we need to figure out how to move it by tomorrow," Jasper glances at the moss as the first part of the plan is done.

"Another problem solved! Who wants to eat victory pizza with me?" Steven is eager to eat a whole box by himself today, but he notices that neither of the Crystal Gems accepted his offer.

"I'll pass," Lapis declines, surprising Steven. Fortunately for him, this isn't a big deal for him.

* * *

"Hmmm, Okay. I'll get pizza all by myself," He walks away, leaving the area as the Crystal Gems waved at him to say "goodbye".

Steven is walking towards to the Pizza place as he sings himself a little tune about getting pizza. As he is near to the shop, he notices Lars is leaning on one of the walls of the shop.

"Hey Lars! Here comes a high five from downtown!" He runs towards him as he readies up for his high five.

"No, Steven! No high fives!" He stops him.

Steven hums as he ponders, and then he finally places his hand on Lars' chest in his own form of high five. "Okay."

Lars, annoyed, swats Steven's hand, and then the boy chuckles.

"So… how come you're not at Big Donut?" Steven asks him.

Lars snorts as he walks forward, "I don't spend my whole life at work." He places his jacket on his shoulder, hanging it, "I do… other things."

"Like standing against this wall?" Steven asks, and then Lars turns at him angrily.

"What does it look like!?" He growls at the child, putting his jacket on his side with his arm, spreading his arms as he shows anger.

"Hmm, looks like you're doing a lot of nothing," Steven replies back, and then Lars hangs the jacket over his shoulder again.

"That's the plan, Steven. Just playing it cool today, you know?" the teenager poses in a relaxed way.

"We are so much alike," and then Steven leans on the wall with the arm leaning on it.

"Excuse me?"

"You wanna get fresh pizza right out of the oven, but you don't want to seem too desperate, right?" Steven asks, thinking that was just Lars' problem, "Well there's no need to be ashamed, just walk right in and ask! That's what I always do," And then Steven checks what's inside the shop, worrying Lars.

"Hey Steven, don't go in there!" Lars warns him as Steven peeks inside, and then there are 3 people inside the shop, who are Buck Dewey, Mayor Dewey's son, Jenny Pizza, Kiki Pizza's twin sister, and Sour Cream, who has seen Peridot before.

"Is that Kiki's sister and her friends?" Steven notices.

Lars sighs, "That's Jenny, Sour Cream, and Buck Dewey."

Steven turns back at him, "Oh, you know those guys."

"No, n-not quite. But I'm sure we'll hang at some point," Lars crosses his arms, frowning at the thought.

"You should go talk to them," and this gets Lars to be surprised.

"B-but that's not how these things work, Steven!" He walks back to the wall, "The plan is to keep it cool and let them come to me." Afterwards, Steven hears the door opening, and then glances.

"Here they come!" He points at them, shocking Lars.

Lars changes to another "laid-back" pose, "Steven, turn around and act natural!"

"Tell dad I'll be back later," Jenny tells her sister before leaving the shop, and then the Cool Kids are now outside of the shop.

"I don't think they saw you," Steven frowns as he glances at Lars.

"Steven, you were blocking me with your big hair… I- ARGH!" the teenager gets even more annoyed at the boy.

"Sorry, I'll tell them to go look over here," Steven points at the Cool Kids' direction, and then he walks towards them, worrying Lars even more.

"Steven, don't go over there- I hate you!" Lars angrily whispers at Steven, who is walking towards the Cool Kids.

As Steven is where the Cool Kids are, he introduced himself. "Hi, my name's Steven!" And then the Cool Kids introduces them after him.

After a few small talks from Steven, and a bit of fear from Lars, thinking the boy is embarrassing him, Steven finally says, "Hey."

Lars snaps into his "cool" poses, "Yo." He suddenly says it louder than what he intended.

"They invited us along for a ride!"

"They? _You_? Steven, you got lucky. So don't ruin this with any of your lame things," He glares at him as he points his finger at him.

* * *

Steven does a finger gun following with a " _Pew! Pew!_ " sound following after it, just to joke around. "You got it!" and then laughs, making Lars cover his face from annoyance, again.

After a few small talks between The Cool Kids for Steven and Lars, they have decided to go to the mountain, where Steven knows that the moss lives in there.

When the squad arrived at the mountain, Steven realizes that they are going towards the same mountain, where he and the Crystal Gems tried to deal with the moss there. So he attempts to stop them, but realizes he and the Crystal Gems had already placed a safety sign for that, so he sighs with relief.

As they get out of the car, the teenagers broke down the electronic " _KEEP OUT!_ " sign made by Peridot, and then they ready up to jump towards the pool, fearing Steven. Because of this, he tried to warn Lars about it, but he was given an annoyed grunt by the teenager and was shrugged off.

Unfortunately for Lars, the teenagers got trapped in the moss, fearing Lars. Now he rushes towards the teenagers with Steven running with him.

As they were rushing towards the water, a part of the moss caught Steven's foot, and he jumps in surprise.

"What is that stuff?" Lars jumps back.

"It's the magic moss my mom planted," Steven replies, but then The Cool Kids fell down to the dry ground, and the two start trying to pry the moss off the teenagers, albeit their efforts didn't even affect the moss' growing rate.

After a few moments of struggling, Steven realizes about the hill, and looks towards it.

 _The hill_ , Steven thought. He turns back to Lars, "Lars, I know what we have to do."

Unfortunately for Steven, Lars didn't reply to him. Instead, Lars angrily stands up and points at him, "This is _your_ fault!" the teenager sighs as tears form in his eyes. "I knew it's something went wrong today because of _you!_ Now I'm never going to be friends with these guys, all because of your… _**Weird**_ mom!"

Steven stares at him, mouth agape from the shock that he never expected that one of his friends would blame his mother for this kind of situation. This gets Lars to realize that Steven is getting angry from what he said, and he knew he messed this up, big time.

"What do _you_ know about my mom?" The boy points a finger at his chest, and then pulls back. " _I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO KNOW_ _ **MY**_ _MOM!_ But I know, is that she saw beauty in everything, even in stuff like this!" He points to the _corpses_ that are covered in moss, "And even in jerks like _you_!"

Now Lars finally regrets what he said, so he grabs his other arm in embarrassment. Fortunately for Lars, Steven has calmed down, and then wonders, "Now help me get them into the car."

* * *

After a few moments of struggling as they move the _corpses_ onto the car, they have finally buckled the seatbelts on them, and they get in the car.

"This moss belongs to the top of that hill!" Steven points the hill that is behind them, but he notices that Lars isn't doing anything but frown, staring at the steering wheel. "Come on Lars, what are you waiting for!?"

"Uh, Steven. I don't know how to drive a stick shift!" Lars confesses, afraid that they will get stuck on this place, forever.

"I'll work the stick, you just keep us on the road!" Steven says.

"Okay, alright." He glances at the ignition at the side of the steering wheel, and then turns the key, "Ignition!"

"Stick power!" Steven moves the stick shift, but he moved it to the "1" part.

"Steven, No! Put it in Reverse!" He shouts.

"Is that the one with R on it?" And they finally back up to where they intended to go, but in backwards.

Gladly, they are now back in the highway, and they are in pure panic as they are on their way to the hill, unsure of what is going to be on the road next.

As they were on their journey to get to the top of the hill, Lars asks, "What's gonna happen if we get to the top of that hill?"

"I don't know!" Steven replies back, unsure of what they're going to do.

"You don't know!?" Lars was surprised by his answer.

"That's just where the moss wants to be!" Steven explains, but he realizes that the moss is also taking him over, so as Lars.

Lars realizes that the moss is also taking him over, so much that it influenced their driving onto a skid.

As they were skidding, they noticed that a truck is infront of them, and they screamed in fear. Fortunately, they only bumped the side of the truck, and their car stopped skidding, having them relieved by the fact that they're going to make it.

"We made it!" Steven laughs in joy.

"We're almost there!" Lars kept driving.

They stopped into a halt, and then they both get out of the car.

"What do we do now?" Lars unbuckles the seatbelts, Steven follows suit.

"We gotta get up there!" He points to the top of the hill, and they both struggle as they try to drag the _corpses_ to the top of the hill, only for them to get stuck due to moss invasion.

"Don't give up…" The boy encourages, despite the fact that both of them are now stuck.

"Steven…" Lars gives one more worried look at Steven.

"What?" Steven asks, wondering if Lars would apologize to him.

Instead, Lars says, "This sucks!" And they now get fully invaded by moss, making them _corpses_.

After a while, the clouds separate to let in the sunlight, and the moss now blooms into flowers, and they scatter away from Steven, Lars, and The Cool Kids. The flowers now float in the air, livening the scenery up by a huge scale.

Both Steven and Lars cough and gasp for breath, and they stood up.

Steven looks around, checking the scenery. "So the moss was just trying to bloom…" He stated, as he saw Lars grab one of the flowers.

The Cool Kids also stood up, and they groan in pain.

"What happened?" Jenny tries to stand up.

"I think I died…" Sour Cream stated.

"Guys, look!" And Jenny stands up and runs towards the end of the hill, and now she sees is the whole Beach City, along with flowers scattered across the sky. Others follow suit, and they were amazed by the display.

"You can see all of Beach City from up here," Sour Cream said.

"It's beautiful," Buck Dewey said.

"Yeah," Jenny agreed. "How did we even get up here?"

"Well, Steven brought us here-" But he was cut off by Steven saying, "Lars drove us here."

Now The Cool Kids are thanking Lars for it, and then Sour Cream thought, "I could totally rave to this…"

Jenny and Buck Dewey chants "Go! Go!" As Sour Cream dances.

Now Steven offers a high five, but Lars shakes his head as he does the special high five that Steven did during the time they were in the pizza place, the special high five that you would high-five someone in the chest. The boy laughs, and then he does the same high five to Lars.

Afterwards, Lars pulls back in embarrassment, "Okay that's enough."

They are done as they get back in the car, and then got to their homes.


	15. Onion Trade

Steven Universe is struggling as he finds his lost action figure in his house, being frustrated in every second he attempts to find his figure.

"Where is my Ranger Guy?" He ponders as he turns around, looking for anything interesting. Instead, he sees Lapis Lazuli outside, reading a book. He picks up his other two action figures before going towards the door.

"Lapis!" He exclaims, now walking towards the door in hopes of finding an answer if his blue-coloured friend could help him find his action figure.

Lapis Lazuli looks up from her book, and then turns around as she saw Steven opening the door, walking outside. The door closes afterwards.

"Hello, Steven." She smiles at him as her greeting.

"Have you seen Ranger Guy?" He asks, surprising her.

"Excuse me?" She asks, in confusion on what he said.

"The Ranger Guy, one of my _Guys_ ," He explains, yet Lapis stares at him in confusion. "You know, _Guys_?" He tries his best to explain.

"I still don't understand," Lapis scratches her head in confusion.

"Well, _Guys Under Your Supervision._ There's Ninja Guy, Construction Guy, Cop Guy, Eye Guy, Invisible Guy, Jagged Guy, Cat Guy, Apple Guy and my main man, Ranger Guy, the best of all Guys, but he's gone missing!" He fully explains the whole thing about his favourite toy franchise, and then now Lapis realizes.

"Oh, those toy action figures?" Lapis points at the toys Steven is holding.

"Yeah, but have you seen Ranger Guy?" He asks once more, but then he hears a door clicking as it opens.

"What's that I hear?" Peridot walks outside as she notices Steven asking. "Did you lose one of your toys again in that messy room of yours?"

"It's not that bad." He answers back, but Lapis snickers as Peridot opens up a window, letting out a bird that is messy, and is carrying a slice of pizza as it flies away. "Oh, how did that get in there?"

"You basically just left your window wide open for things to just fly in and out!" Peridot closes the window in annoyance.

"Just give him a break, Peri. Mine's a huge mess, but at least I can sense them," Lapis gets back into reading her book.

"Then why haven't you found one of my pistols in your room?" Peridot glares at her.

"Well, at least I found a way into your heart," Lapis smirks as she lets Peridot get flustered.

"Are you really taking what I said seriously!?" Peridot blushes as she tries to set up a point.

"Come on, flirting is not that bad," Lapis closes her book, still having a smug expression as Peridot is agitated.

"I still need you to find one of my pistols in your room," Peridot pinches her nose bridge as she lifts her visor.

"You really need to change your limb enhancers to waterproof if you need to find it, because I am too busy reading this book."

"There's no way I'm finding my pistol in that risky place!" And so on they kept arguing, leaving Steven out of the conversation, making him look at his toys, and then going downstairs.

"Peri, all your technical talking is making Steven get bored." Lapis notices him walking downstairs.

"Is there something wrong, Steven?" Peridot turns around.

"No, I'm fine," He sighs. "I'll just have to break the news to my dad."

As Steven leaves the house, Peridot sighs.

"Now we made him leave again because of our own, hugely nonsense drama," She walks towards the table, gets a seat, and then places it beside Lapis as she sits beside her.

"It's okay, Peri. It happens sometimes," Lapis gently places her hand on Peridot's shoulder, and she notices that her close friend is frowning. "Come on, don't feel so bad."

"It's just that we always make him get annoyed in what we say, right?" Peridot looks up to her as she still feels sadness inside her.

"Well, it's okay." And then Lapis sets aside her book, and then she pulls back her hand, and then spreads her arms. "Hugs?" She invites her with a smile on her face.

Peridot sighs again, "Sure."

* * *

Steven walks towards to his dad's car wash, calling his name repeatedly in hopes of finding him in the place.

"Dad!" He called again as he goes inside the inside of the wash, only to get splashed by a stream of water. "I'm so sorry!" He cried.

"Yeah you're sorry!" Greg smirks as he walks towards his son. "Sorry you walked through that door without hosing your hand, ready for battle!" And he shouts a battle cry until Steven gets past his hose, frustrated.

"Dad, please!" Steven glares at him, and then changes back to a frown as he looks down.

"Man, you look sad. What happened to your life, little guy?" He asks him with concern in his tone.

"I… lost something, something precious." He looks back at him.

Greg gasps, "Your innocence?"

"I lost Ranger Guy," Steven lowers his father's hose, but Greg is still confused. "One of my Guys, as the special day at the beach last summer? You bought it for me at the end of the day! He was one of a kind," he keeps explaining. "He had a miscoloured hat, how could you not remember?"

Greg scratches his head, and then realizes. "Oh, was this the same day that we ate that awesome funnel cake?"

"Uh… huh?" Steven gets confused on what Greg said.

"Yeah man, that funnel cake," He smiled, and then walks towards his van. "I even kept the plate, come on!" He lets Steven go with him, and then the boy follows him.

Greg opens up his van as he starts his search for his son's missing action figure, yet the balloons move out of the vans.

"Cool balloons," Steven mutters under his breath. He walks towards the van, waiting for his dad to look for something.

"Let's see here… I got cans, napkins, a yo-yo, a book about yo-yo tricks, a sandwich I've been meaning to catch up on," But then Greg feels a marble hitting on his butt. "Ow, my butt!" And Steven laughs.

"Wait, what's your story again?" Greg turns around, realizing he has forgotten his son's request.

"I lost my Ranger Guy, and I'm quite upset over it," Steven lists two things, and then Greg thinks about it.

"Hmm, well…" He checks the van again, and he finds a bag full of quarters, and then he gives it to his son. "Here's a bag full of quarters, now you can have all the Guys you want!" He smiles.

Steven gasps in surprise, amazed by what's infront of him. He brings it closer towards himself, "Thank you!" He loudly whispered.

"Watcha' say?" Greg didn't catch on to what Steven said, and then he hears his son shouting "THANK YOU!" loudly.

* * *

"We'll reunite soon, Ranger Guy."

Steven is in Funland, ready to use the toy vending machine, with a bag of coins on his side.

"Here we go," He places a coin in the slot, and then the machine comes starts up, and starts the random selection. "And…"

"Dave Guy!" The vending machine said.

"What?" Steven got confused, and then the machine says "Lucky!" as it ejects a toy capsule on the half-pipe tray.

"Not lucky, he's like the worst guy!" Steven complained as he picks up the toy capsule. "Maybe he comes with something cool," He muttered to himself, and then he opens up the capsule, inspecting the contents inside. What it only contained was taxes, and a blue skinned man that looks like it has no life. "Taxes? Come on Dave Guy, is this all what you have to offer? A bunch of paperwork? ANSWER ME!" He pauses for a while and then smiles, "Good thing I have all of these quarters."

Steven places another coin, and then the machine selects Dave Guy.

"No!" He complained, and then kept doing it as the machine constantly picks Dave Guy.

"Dave Guy!" The machine selects the last toy, and then sends the last capsule. "The machine is out of Guys, please come back another time!"

"It's over," Steven gives up, but then he hears a loud rattling on his right, and he sees Onion getting out of the other vending machine that is on his right side.

"Onion, what are you doing?" He asks as he sees Onion leaving the place with a bag of chips on his hands, but he notices that Onion also has what Steven wants, The Ranger Guy. Gasping, he said, "He's got a Ranger Guy!?"

"Onion!" He calls again as he puts the scattered Dave Guys into his plastic bag. "Wait up, let's trade!" He shouted as he runs towards him. He goes outside of Funland, only to notice that Onion has vanished, "Where did he go?"

He sees that Onion is in the store _Suitcase Sam_ , so he goes past the sidewalk and peeks through the window, "Does he need a suitcase?" He muttered as he watches Onion try to "talk" to the guy in a suit. _Is he haggling with that guy?_ Steven thought as he sees Onion keep on shaking his head as the man keeps asking questions. _He's a tough customer_.

Onion points the lunch bag behind the suited man, and then he grabs it and passes it to Onion.

 _Looks like they work something out,_ he surveys the little boy going out of the store, yet Steven gets even more confused as he notices Onion is carrying a lunch bag.

"Did he just get that guy's lunch!?" He exclaimed, and then he starts to follow him. _I wonder how is this going to play out_ …

* * *

Steven has been following Onion for quite some time, and now they both end up in the docks.

He surveys Onion from a distance, observing him as the little boy sits down and then pulls out a hamburger out of the box.

Steven was surprised by the hamburger, hungry for the food. _Hey, good lookin,_ thinking that Onion would eat it.

But instead, Onion threw the pieces of hamburgers to the sea, horrifying Steven. "What the heck is he even doing!? He's not even hungry!?" And then he gasps as Onion throws the tomatoes, "Not the tomatoes!" He covers his eyes in fear.

A few seconds later, he uncovers his eyes, and what he saw was a boat sailing towards the docks with a sailor that looks like Onion, except he has a yellow bright raincoat and a yellow, oversized hat with navy blue boots.

"Hey, is that Onion's dad?" Steven mutters to himself again, mostly in confusion as he observes the two. Onion's dad lifts his son up as he starts to talk. He may not have understood on what they said, but their tone shows that they are friendly to each other.

Now Onion's father gently places him down. _I guess they don't need words,_ Steven thought, but suddenly he notices that Onion's father goes back on his boat. _Huh? He's leaving so soon?_ He thought to himself again as he looks at Onion again, who is waving at his father who is sailing away. _Does Onion just sit around and wait for his dad all day?_

But his question was suddenly turned away as he looks down, and notices Ranger Guy in Onion's back pocket, "Ranger Guy!" He checks his plastic bag, and then readies up, "Okay, let's do this," and then he starts to walk towards Onion.

He starts to walk towards the little boy, "Hey, Onion." He catches the boy's attention, "How are ya?"

Onion shrugs with his shoulders, yet Steven nods in response.

"That's good, that's good," He said. "I couldn't help but notice that you're a Guys fan," He assumed, but then Onion just kept staring at him. "You know, Guys? The little men in your back pocket?" He clarified, and then Onion grabs Ranger Guy and shows it to him. "Yeah, Ranger Guy!"

He prepares his plastic bag, "How about you trade me that boring old Ranger Guy, for a brand spanking new, mint-in-box Dave Guy!" He shows the toy figure, "Pretty nice, right?" He asks.

However, Onion shakes his head, and then offers his hand as he makes a gesture, as if he needs more than just one Dave Guy.

"Oh, I see where this is going," Steven realizes, or he thought so as he reaches for his bag again. "You're getting quite the deal here, with two _Dave Guys_!" He shows two of them, ready to be traded.

And again, Onion shakes his head, and asks for more. This kept going until Steven admits that the vending machine was all out of Guys, making Onion leave the docks without giving Steven what he wanted.

Steven kept calling Onion so he could work something out, but the little boy doesn't budge as he leaves the docks. Now Steven is sad because he didn't get his Ranger Guy.

* * *

Steven angrily walks upstairs as he mumbles, "Stupid Dave Guy, you have no future, your haircut's gross, you smell bad…"

"Steven?" Lapis looks up from her book.

"Yeah?"

"Who are you talking about?"

"I am talking about dumb, old Dave Guy," Steven said as he approaches towards Lapis. "I mean, just look at him," He lifts up his action figure. "Does it look like his life is going anywhere?"

"Maybe, but sometimes you just need to give him a break," she ponders. "Maybe he will get back his life together this year."

"I doubt it!" He said angrily. "I can't even trade 30 Dave Guys with Onion to get _one_ Ranger Guy!" He complains.

"So… you mean you need _more_ of these Dave Guys just to get _one_ Ranger Guy, right?" Lapis ponders as she taps on her chin.

"Yeah, and the machine is sold out of them," He furrows his eyebrows angrily, but he changes his expression as he notices Lapis pulling out a green-coloured looking device from her gem. "What's that?"

"Peridot's replicating device," She passes it to Steven. "You can use it to make duplicates of anything you copy, and that's magic with a bit of technology, so I guess you will figure it out."

Steven inspects the device, and it looks like it has a screen on its handle, and on the screen shows a picture of Lapis smiling as she hugs Peridot, who is embarrassed, and the device has an antenna on the top of the device.

And this is where Steven realizes that this device was kept by Lapis, "Have you been sitting all day with this in your gem?"

"Not really, I had to help Peri to find her weapons in my room, but I found that instead, and then used it to copy that photo and flood her room with that," And then Steven hears a faint scream from the echoes in his house. "That's her being flustered."

* * *

Onion throws up packets of ketchup in the air, and lets them lying scattered on the ground. He walks away to get on his motorcycle, and squeezes the packets as he messes around, skidding on the area with the ketchup packets, and afterwards him jumping off the motorcycle, crashing it as it explodes into shrapnel and rolling, broken tires.

"Hey Onion!" Steven calls out, and then Onion removes his helmet. Steven grabs his duplicator device, and then points it to his Dave Guy toy capsule, letting it copy, and then he points it at Onion's general direction, shooting another Dave Guy from the device, and then it lands infront of him.

"That makes… 31!" He smiles at the plan, believing that the trade will go through. Unfortunately for him, Onion shakes his head in disagreement.

The little boy kicks the toy away, and then starts his way towards Steven, walking slowly.

"You want more?" Steven asks, and then he points the wand again. "How about 32?" He shoots another Dave Guy, yet Onion still doesn't respond.

"33?" He shoots again, and then he keeps on counting as he shoots more Dave Guys. "34? 35? 36? 37? 38? 39!?"

"40!" He shouted as he shoots the last one, and then Onion knocks the 40th Dave Guy off his way, setting off Steven.

"Enough, what is it that you want!?" He shouted, and now Onion is infront of him, pulling out his Ranger Guy in his hand, and pointing at the wand in the other.

"You mean, you want this… for Ranger Guy?" He lifts the wand, and then Onion nods. Now, his hand is shaking nervously as Onion's look gets more sinister and scarier every second as his pupils shrink into a dot. He hears the ambulance and police coming towards to where they are, and now Steven is nervous.

* * *

It is a peaceful afternoon in Beach City, and now Steven has his Ranger Guy on his hand.

"We are on the scene with Ranger Guy on Beach patrol!" He lifts Ranger Guy up.

" _Things are just looking great out here, Steven!"_ Ranger guy _said._

"Yup, everything is great." He _responded_ back. "Great…" And then Steven lies down. "Were you always this boring, Ranger Guy?"

" _I used to be a doctor!_ "

"…Maybe you're just more fun around-" Steven was cut off as he felt a toy capsule dropping on his stomach. "Guys?" And he notices the toy capsule infront of him, "Dave Guy!? I thought I saw the last of-" But now he felt more toy capsules hitting above him.

"Hey, what's the big idea!?" He exclaims, but he only trails away on the "idea" part, as he notices that Beach City is being flooded with toy capsules. He is confused about the whole flood, until he realizes about the trade he did a few minutes ago.

" _ **ONION**_ ," He angrily called his name as the flood gets worse.

Onion keeps on using the wand, duplicating each toy as the flood gets worse.

The Crystal Gems arrive on the scene, "This is ridiculous! How in Rose Quartz did he get my duplicator!?"

"That human should _not_ be in possession of such an item," Jasper growls.

"Are these Steven's…" Lapis squints her eyes before she gets hit by one of the toys. "Ow!"

"Lapis!" Peridot cries out, and then they hear a small rumble infront of them.

"They're called _GUYS!_ " He emerges from the flood, and then Peridot glares at her.

"Can you please explain this mess!?" Peridot is still grabbing Lapis by her arms.

"I traded that duplicator for Ranger Guy!" Steven shows the toy infront of them, which is Ranger Guy.

"Well, why didn't you just _try_ to aim at Ranger Guy, and duplicate him?" Peridot sighs afterwards.

 _She has a point_ , Steven thought as he realizes. "Dangit!" He cursed.

"Let's move before this flood gets worse," Jasper said as she runs, and then jumps. Peridot does the same, but Lapis falls behind because she fell onto the flood and now she is stuck.

"How do you move in this?" Lapis gives a confused look at Steven. He says something that Lapis couldn't understand, and now he gets under and now moves around. "What?"

After a few moments, there's another person who emerges at Lapis' side, and it's Greg.

"Oh my gosh I just wanted some ice cream!" He complained.

"Hi Greg," Lapis greets him.

"What the heck is going on out here?" Greg asks Lapis about the situation.

"Eh, you know, just doing our thing." She shrugs.

Jasper and Peridot carefully climb on the toys as the hail goes on, and they see Onion looking down at them.

"Put the device down, and we won't harm you!" Jasper growls at Onion, but what she got in response was a hail of toy capsules going towards her, so she summons her helmet, and then blocks it, with Peridot moving a bit away from her in safety. "This is a serious matter, _put the device down._ "

Onion stops, and then looks around, and he finds a car stuck in the flood, so he selects the car, and starts aiming at Jasper again.

"This is _not_ good," Peridot fearfully glances at Jasper, and then looks up. "Get down!" She shoves Jasper down as one car spawns above them, and then she grabs it with her beam. She notices that another car spawned, so she uses her other arm to shoot it, but she was overwhelmed as it goes on.

Lapis and Greg slowly wade through the mess, and Greg complains, "When will the toy rain stop?"

Lapis notices that a car is above them. "Oh no, get down!" So she pushes Greg down as she gets inside, dodging the car.

Steven wades through the mess, going towards where Onion is, and then he emerges as he shouts Onion's name angrily. He grabs him, and then they fall down through the flood, either of them clutching the duplicator.

"Onion, please stop! Let's trade back," He grabs his Ranger Guy, and then shows it to him. "Take Ranger Guy, he's the best! He has a miscoloured hat-" He checks Ranger Guy's shoes, and he notices that it's actually _his_ Ranger Guy, given that there are initials _S. U._ on its shoes. He gasps in horror, and then angrily looks at him.

"This is _my_ Ranger Guy! You traded me my own Guy!" He shouted at him as Onion nervously looks at him, and then he finally yanks the duplicator off Onion. "Our trade didn't count!" And then he throws the duplicator at the ground, but it isn't affected. "That didn't work."

Jasper emerges from the ground, "I swear to Rose Quartz I won't let Lapis take Peridot's work without her permission." She was surprised as she sees Peridot stomping the duplicator into pieces with her foot.

"I won't clean up this mess, after what this stupid, idiotic child did," Peridot keeps an angry expression, and now the Crystal Gems hear the duplicated copies disappear, and now they all vanish after a few seconds.

* * *

"I think I understand why you took my Ranger Guy, Onion."

The gang is hanging around outside Funland, and Steven is talking to Onion as the Crystal Gems idle. "I bet you get pretty lonely waiting for your dad all day," And he sees Onion nodding. "You were probably really bored too," He claims, and he still notices that Onion is still nodding.

"Cuz you missed your dad, you took my Ranger Guy. Which is the symbol of the relationship I had with my dad," However, Onion disagrees. "No? Just the first thing?" He asks, and Onion agrees.

"Well, here." Steven passes the Ranger Guy towards Onion, "You need it more than I do."

And now Onion happily runs away without a word.

"Let's head back to the Temple," Jasper said as Lapis and Peridot walk with her back to Steven's house.

"So all the things that got copied turned into nothing?" Lapis asks Peridot.

"Yes, and that includes _that_ photo you used to flood my room with," And Lapis sighs from what Peridot said.

Greg is walking towards Steven, "That was cool with what you did back there."

"Thanks, Dad." He glances at him.

"But have you gone through all that trouble for this?" He asks him.

"It was more about the memories in the toy," He answers, and then he walks with Greg, away from Funland. "Now we have new memories, horrible, _horrible_ memories."

"Aw," was only Greg could muster as they leave Funland.


	16. Steven the Sword Fighter

**_Author's Note: Here's the chapter that I really loved working on, similar to how I love working on Giant Woman._**

 ** _Have fun with the chapter, and I am excited to work on Indirect Kiss, Mirror Gem, and Ocean Gem sometime! (Although those chapters take a long time to wait before I could work on them.)_**

* * *

It's a rainy, cloudy night for The Crystal Gems, as they stay inside the house with Steven Universe, watching an action movie.

As the film goes on, Steven cheers for the protagonist, but Peridot seems to be annoyed by how the protagonist fights, and uses tactics inaccurately.

"This guy is so cool!" Steven keeps cheering on as he gets surprised by the main character's move.

"Eh, that kind of fighting is actually nothing compared to the actual fighting, along with the _real_ tactics involved with it," But she was hushed by Jasper.

"Come on, Peri. It's just a movie," Lapis smiles softly at her, and Peridot sighs.

"Lapis is right, you should take it less seriously," Jasper tells her, and Peridot sighs even more.

"Well, if you want to see a proper demonstration of Close Quarters Combat, I'd happy to show you," Peridot stands up, but then she feels popcorn hitting on her back. "Who did that?" She looks back, and then it was Lapis, but she was pointing at Steven, who is enthusiastic about what Peridot said. "For real?" she can't believe by the fact that Steven wants to learn about fighting, so she smiles. "Sure, but we'll have to train by tomorrow morning."

"Don't use my room for now," Jasper warned Peridot.

"Note taken."

* * *

The Crystal Gems are on a wide, floating platform that has the surrounding clouds on it, resembling a broken stadium with statues of unknown figures on its pillars. Peridot is on a center of the broken stadium, ready to demonstrate the skills used in fighting.

"Alright, so in order for me to give a proper demonstration on Close Quarters Combat, I need someone to be my sparring partner," Peridot glances at Jasper, but Jasper turns down the offer, shaking her head. "That's okay; I have someone to accompany me for the practice."

"Is it me?" Peridot hears Lapis, and then she glances at her direction, now noticing that she is sitting ontop of the cloud. She sees her smirking, and then Peridot rolls her eyes while blushing.

Peridot now calms down as she sighs, "Not you, but it's going to be my hologram copy of myself." She uses her gem to replicate a copy of herself, and then she releases the beam, letting the hologram come to life.

"Cool, Hologram Peridot!" Steven grins in amazement.

"I know, right? Peridot is perfect because of this," Lapis smiles at Peridot.

"Just let Peridot focus for once," Jasper tells Lapis.

The hologram now speaks, _"DO YOU WISH TO ENGAGE IN COMBAT, CLOD?"_ It said in Peridot's voice, except it's monotone and robotic.

"Let this be the great battle," Peridot grabs two, small gem stabilizers that resemble a small combat knife, and passes one to a hologram Peridot. She also uses her other set of fingers to ready up her cannon.

" _YOU CLODS HAVE ALREADY MADE A MISTAKE BY CHALLENGING THE GREAT PERIDOT!"_ The hologram says as it readies up a gun and melee combat stance.

The actual Peridot laughs, "Wish to lets our weapons decide." She readies up.

"Go, Peri!" Lapis cheered, but was hushed by Steven and Jasper.

Now, the two combatants wait for either to strike, and hologram's eyes start turning red in colour.

" _COMMENCING DUEL,_ " The hologram commanded by itself, and is now charging at Peridot in a zigzag pattern before she blocks its weapon with her own, giving a small shockwave pattern around them, and eventually giving Steven a small, harmless shock in the process.

They now both run in the same direction, and Peridot commences the punching, which were dodged and deflected by the hologram, and Peridot throws the hologram over, but then it recovers quickly and does a sweeping, circular kick, only to have Peridot jump over it and charge at it with her destabilizer, only to have it blocked again.

" _DEFENSE RANK S. ZERO OPENINGS DETECTED!"_ The hologram stated Peridot's skill.

"Go Peridot, go!" Steven and Lapis both cheer, giving Peridot confidence. Because of this, the green gem smacks the hologram's face with her cannon-now-turned-fist, stunning it in the process. Now she throws its weapon off the arena, and then she throws the hologram over again, and slams her destabilizer right on the hologram's chest.

The hologram distorts for a second, but then it fixes itself. " _MATCH SET, CHALLENGER WINS!"_ The hologram clarified, making Steven and Lapis cheer for Peridot again, while Jasper applauds by clapping. Now Steven runs towards Peridot.

" _DO YOU WISH TO BATTLE AGAIN?_ " The hologram copy stands up.

"Peridot, that was amazing!" Steven circles around her, and then stands infront of her. "You were so cool!"

Peridot chuckles at Steven's compliment, "Well, one does try her best." She shrugs, and then she notices Lapis, who is twirling her hair, giving Peridot a smirk, and a look that is perceived as sensual, making her blush. She swears under her breath about Lapis's looks.

"Will you teach me on how to fist fight like you?" Steven imitates Peridot's fighting stances, and pretends on using fist fighting.

"Well sure, but we'll start to the bottom part first: The Basics." and then she clears her throat. "Yes, initiate Training Mode."

The hologram stands up, and then commands " _TRAINING MODE INITIATED! LEVEL 1, BEGIN!"_ as the copy starts to return to its original stance.

Peridot readies up to her original fighting stance, albeit less energetic, because of the training mode. Now the hologram starts to chant " _DEFLECT, DEFLECT, PUNCH!"_ and Peridot blocks them easily.

"Do you see how my feet move as I block this target?" Peridot asks Steven, who was enthusiastic at first, but then realizes it's not the same as what he watched, both from the movie and from Peridot. "Notice where I keep my center of gravity."

"Aw, can you show me something cool?" Steven asked. "Like what you did to make that target fall of the ground!" Steven imitates Peridot, demonstrating what he meant.

"Oh, the Judo Throw?" Then Peridot throws the hologram over again for demonstration.

"Cool!" Steven cheered on, amazed by Peridot's skills.

"Thanks Steven, but you should still know that these are advanced techniques," Peridot shakes the dust off her limb enhancers, and then looks at him, still unaware of the hologram starting to stand up again. "If you want to do these techniques, do them carefully, and you have to wait for the perfect moment to use that strike-"

 _Peridot was hit by a Gem Destabilizer._

Steven gasps in shock, as Peridot couldn't say any word.

"PERIDOT!" Lapis cries out.

"Oh no," Jasper stands up.

Peridot now returns back to her gem, forming a cloud wave around her.

Steven cries out Peridot's name as he runs towards her gem, and then kneels as tears form into his eyes.

" _CHALLENGER DEFEATED. LEVEL 1 FAILED!_ " The hologram said, angering Lapis.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO PERIDOT!?" She angrily cries out at the hologram copy, and then she charges at it, forming water gauntlets. She now punches at the hologram, but it had no effect whatsoever, because the hologram distorts for a while, dodging the punch. She pants from exhaustion, her energy already spent on anger and on the water manipulation.

"I… I don't…" Steven couldn't look for words, still clouded by sadness.

Jasper calmly walks towards Steven, "She's going to be okay, Quartz Child."

"Huh, what do you mean?" Steven looks at her.

"It's because, if we get really hurt, then we have to return to our gems and regenerate."

"So she's going to be okay?" He wonders if Peridot would return, and then he glances at Lapis' direction, noticing that she is sulking over Peridot.

"Yes, but we have to wait and give her time," Jasper stands up, and then Steven gets up, passing Peridot to Lapis.

"So… how long does it take?" Steven asks.

"Maybe 5 to 10 minutes," Jasper said as she climbs up to the Warp Pad.

* * *

[ _ **2 WEEKS LATER**_ ]

* * *

Steven grabs a lamp, and then shines it on Peridot's gem, which is placed carefully on a basket containing a pillow and a small blanket.

He sighs, "What's taking so long?" He complains as he taps his hands on the counter, and then surveys the living room. It is still a huge mess, even more that Lapis, who is beside Steven, is still sulking over Peridot, and being so silent since the incident with the hologram.

The warp pad glows up, and it shows Jasper, but she was unaware that there is a hologram copy of Peridot behind her, until it started chanting.

" _DEFLECT! DEFLECT! PUNCH!_ " It started to loudly chant, and it actually managed to surprise Jasper, as she dodges the strike, and then pushes it back by kicking.

"How in Rose Quartz did this get here?" Jasper questioned the hologram.

"I think it might have missed Peridot," Steven guesses. "Right, Lapis?" He glances at her direction, yet she still doesn't give out a response. He silently counts it as a no afterwards, and then frowns as he looks downwards.

Suddenly, he has a thought. He could try to make the hologram act more like the actual Peridot, so he runs towards the hologram.

But as he was running towards it, Lapis notices that the hologram is about to hit Steven.

"Steven, NO!" She shouted, and then the hologram hits Steven, but she realizes that Steven is unaffected by the destabilizer. She glances at Jasper, and she also notices that Jasper is even surprised by this.

Steven felt ticklish from the strike, but he notices that the one that is supposed to hurt him, is actually harmless against him.

"Oh." He said, but Jasper pulls him back.

"Don't try to get close next time, Quartz Child." She worries for Steven.

"Did… just Steven…" Lapis tries to make a point, but she is still at loss for words due to her friend's loss.

"Quartz Child is okay," Jasper said as she glances at Lapis' direction, and then nods.

Steven starts explaining his idea, "Guys, I think we can make this Peridot be like _our_ Peridot!"

"How?" Jasper questions him.

"I'll show you how," Steven is confident by his idea, and then he attempts to drag the hologram towards his room. He realizes that the hologram is idle. "I guess this will take a while," He huffs in annoyance and exhaustion.

* * *

"Here we have… a mess," Steven showcases his messy room, which has been hastily thrown a few seconds ago by no other than himself. "Besides Peridot taking a liking to mess around with my gadgets, she also likes organizing mess."

He picks up a toy from his mess, "She also likes to organize them by type." He places one of them on the windowsill, and then proceeds to name the types everytime he places one of them, "Animal, Humanoid, Miscellaneous…"and then he grabs the last one. "Now you try!" He grins, but it suddenly falters, due to the fact that he is grabbing a toy that is raising its sword upwards.

The hologram distorts again, and then shouts " _YOU'VE DRAWN YOUR WEAPON IN VAIN, CLOD!_ "

"Oh no!" He throws the toy upward and then ducks, making the hologram smack the toy, and sending it fly around the room before having it broken into pieces.

" _CLOD DEFEATED!_ " and the hologram idles again, making Steven nervously chuckle.

"I guess we'll have to try something else…"

* * *

Steven and the Hologram Peridot (Who now has an umbrella) are outside, surveying the scenery on the beach, still cloudy even after the rain. He sees Jasper and Lapis outside, and Jasper is the one comforting Lapis.

"Peridot always comforts Lapis when she gets sad," Steven gives a small smile, then glances at the hologram Peridot.

" _I WON'T GO EASY ON YOU THIS TIME!_ " The hologram said, surprising Steven.

"That's the spirit!" He said, but he also realizes that he agrees on what the hologram said, which sounds mean.

He walks towards the two, saying "Hello, guys!" and is greeted normally by Jasper and silently by Lapis. "So… what are you guys doing?"

" _DRAW YOUR WEAPON,_ CLOD _!_ " The hologram shouted, setting off Lapis.

"WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL WITH YOU AND YOUR _STUPID_ DUELS!?" She uses her water powers to drown the Hologram, but she realizes that she made it angrier.

" _CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! PREPARE TO FIGHT,_ CLOD!" It said, managing to anger Lapis even more. It starts to attack offensively, but then was taken down by the water gem.

Lapis keeps beating it on the ground over and over with her pair of water fists, constantly punching with every single ounce of anger, surprising Steven and Jasper.

After a few moments of punching, Lapis stands up, finished. She pants in exhaustion as she angrily glares at the hologram, which is lying on the ground.

The hologram distorts for a while, and then says, " _CHALLENGER WINS! EVEN BETTER THAN PERIDOT!_ " It stands up, and then idles.

Steven frowns even more, saddened by the fact that Peridot hasn't returned for the past two weeks. "I just hope that Peridot will come back."

"Don't worry, Quartz Child. Peridot will be back soon," She reassures him, and then Steven looks at the hologram. "Be patient, _and stop hanging out with that darn hologram._ It's getting sad for us."

* * *

Steven and Hologram Peridot are back at the small garden, white and red petals still scattered on the ground.

"You had fun on the boardwalk, right?" He asks, still clutching a huge walrus plush infront of him, while the hologram wields a sword balloon, and wears a balloon crown ontop of its head.

" _PERI!_ " It shouted, doing a harmless attack as its response.

"Aw come on, you've got to work with me here." He glances at the spot behind him, which is a grass patch with a flattened area on it, surrounded by bushes of roses, "This is Peridot's favourite spot. She mostly hangs out with Lapis here, before the Lunar Sea Spire was repaired." He glances back at the hologram, "Don't you recognize it? What's on your mind?" He questions.

The hologram doesn't respond.

"Come on, don't hold back!" He said.

The hologram distorts, and has its eyes glowing into red. " _CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!_ " It shouted.

"What?" He drops the plush, and then ducks as he avoids the slash done by the hologram. This results into the bushes being cut into half. "Oh no, the tree!" He cried out.

" _CHALLENGER DEFEATED!_ " And then idles back again.

Steven groans, " _Real_ Peridot would never do that!" he shouted angrily. "She would never challenge Lapis into a fight without her permission. She would _never_ try to hurt Lapis. But you? _**YOU'RE HOPELESS!**_ " He runs away from the hologram. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

* * *

A lightning strike flashes, and the thunder crackles afterwards, triggering another rain.

"It's too bad you're still not here, Peridot. Lapis still has been waiting for you to be back," He frowns from the thought, but then he smiles, knowing that he will be watching the second movie of the action movie he's been meaning to watch. "But at least I have a copy of this movie."

There comes the awkward silence as he finishes his sentence, and his smile falters again. He sighs afterwards, "How long are you gonna make us wait, Peridot?" He glances at Lapis, who is still sulking as she sits on the couch, her legs brought up close to her chest, her head resting on her knees.

He realizes that the popcorn that is sitting in his microwave is done, "Oh wait, the popcorn's done! Stay right there!" He runs towards the microwave, and then opens up as he grabs the popcorn. He turns around, and-

" _DO YOU WISH TO TEST YOUR SKILLS AGAINST PERIDOT IN A DUEL?_ " The hologram shouted, and Lapis groans loudly.

Steven gets frustrated again, "No! No fist fighting!" He shouts as he gets past the robot, starting to carry Peridot's gem on his hand, and then places the VCR copy on his hair, and then the bag of popcorn on his other hand.

He stops to look at his friend, "Lapis?"

"Steven?" She slowly looks up to him, saddened.

"Wanna come upstairs?" He asks her with a smile, and he sees her nod. "I'll get the movie ready," He said as he slowly walks upstairs, hearing Lapis's footsteps as they prepare to watch the movie.

Suddenly, they see a flash of lighting, and the thunder booming, so they look on what's behind them. _Not the hologram!_ Steven thought.

" _DRAW YOUR WEAPON AND FUFILL YOUR DESTINY YOU CLOD!_ " The hologram shouted.

"No! Leave me, Lapis, and Peridot alone!" Steven shouts as he quickly rushes towards his TV, with Lapis following him.

He sets down Peridot, the VCR copy, and the bag of popcorn as he turns around to ask Lapis, "Can you put her back on her sheet?"

"Okay," was all what Lapis said as she grabs a white, thin sheet and throws it over the hologram.

Steven and Lapis are both watching the movie, enjoying its story as they learn the truth about the protagonist.

"Woah, this is really good. What do you think, Peridot?" He glances at where Peridot's gem is, and then-

" _PERI!"_ The hologram shouted as it is next to them, annoying and distracting them from the movie.

Lapis growls at the hologram, but was silenced by Steven, who is shushing her as he eats a handful of popcorn.

As they were still watching the movie, Steven can't focus on enjoying the movie, due to the thoughts about the incident two weeks ago, where it doomed Peridot into sacrificing her physical form in order to regenerate.

 _If you want to do these techniques, do them carefully, and you have to wait for the perfect moment!_ He thought of what Peridot said before she was hit by the hologram's weapon. He closes his eyes, forming tears.

" _PUNCH!"_ the hologram shouted as it hits the TV with just a single swipe by its Gem Destabilizer.

"The TV!" Steven said as he backs off. "Why must you destroy the things I love!?"

" _CLOD DEFEATED! CONTINUE_?"

"I hate you, _I hate you_! You're nothing like Peridot!" He shouted in anger. "Peridot is smart, and she always want to protect me from danger! All you do is _fight_ me!"

"Steven, no!" Lapis realizes the keyword Steven accidentally used, and now she stares at the hologram in horror.

" _CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!_ "

Steven growls as he gets even more frustrated, "Grr, Fine!" He pushes the hologram.

"STEVEN!" Lapis shouts.

" _BASIC ATTACK MODE INITIATED!"_ And then the hologram starts up its stance. " _DEFLECT! DEFLECT! PUNCH!_ " and it keeps repeating the attacks.

"STOP SAYING THAT!" He throws his toys three times in a row, each of them successfully hitting the Gem Destabilizer, except for one, which hits the hologram in the face.

" _BASIC ATTACK MODE DEFEATED_!" and this relieves Steven. " _NOW INITIATING…"_ It distorts for a while, and then its eyes turn red, " _OFFENSE MODE!_ "

Lapis now gets worried this time. "STEVEN, RUN!" she said as she pulls Steven out of the harm's way, and then jumping down from his room, landing on the couch.

The hologram now tears up the sheet that it was covered in, and then proceeds to jump down towards the couch, pointing its weapon at them.

Now, Steven panics, forming a shield between them and the hologram.

The hologram hits the shield, and stumbles beside them as it is disabled for a few seconds.

"Run!" was all that Lapis exclaimed as she puts him down, and then they run towards the kitchen. She turns on the faucet, letting out a stream of water as she clogs the drain.

Now the hologram reactivates, and then now runs towards them.

Lapis forms water gauntlets as she gets infront of Steven and then starts to deflect every attack that the hologram makes. After a wave of attacks that she deflected, she starts to throw Steven towards his room, making him land at the bed.

"Lapis!" He shouted, worried by the fact that Lapis would get hurt from the hologram.

"For Rose's sake, _where are you Peridot!?_ " Lapis loudly questions her close friend as she punches the hologram, but was deflected, and then punched back. She groans in pain as the hologram is ready to hit her with the destabilizer.

"No!" Steven worries again, hastily wondering about a thought. _What would Peridot do when she gets hurt like this-_

 _The Judo throw!_ He thought, and then starts to shout, "LAPIS! THROW HER OVER!"

"Huh?" Lapis didn't catch what Steven said, but then she realizes. Now she dodges the attack, and then gives the hologram a quick jab to the face before she throws the hologram over, and then punches it hard, causing the floor to crack.

The hologram distorts a lot, before it shouts again. " _CHALLENGER WINS! DO YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE AGAINST PERIDOT AGAIN?"_

"NO!" Lapis shouts as she shoves a giant orb of water on the hologram, encasing it. It now fades away. She pants in exhaustion, before Jasper opens up the door.

"I heard fighting, what was going on out here?" She questions Lapis and Steven, who almost made a huge mess because of the fight.

"The hologram went berserk and tried to hurt us," Lapis frowns as she puts the water back, and then opens up the drain for the sink as she places the water on it. She turns around, and then she notices bits of the hologram floating around, and she stomps them. "Sorry for the huge mess."

"I forgive you. That thing was a huge threat to begin with," Jasper acknowledges Lapis' apology, giving her a reassuring smile.

Steven joins in the conversation, "Yeah, and we miss Peridot a whole lot. But sometimes, you just have to accept things the way they are before you-"

He hears Peridot's gem sparkling as it shimmers, lighting up the whole room with a light shade of green. The gem floats to the distance between Lapis and Steven, and then it forms variations on Peridot's shape, and all of them still retain the small height that she has.

Now she fully reforms, and she floats down to the ground.

" **NEVERMIND PERIDOT'S BACK!** _"_ Lapis and Steven quickly shouted in glee as he quickly runs towards Peridot, and then they hug her at the same time. But they found out something about Peridot's new outfit, so they pull back. "Wait, are you small? That's so cute!" Steven lets out a small squeak, walking back as he appreciates Peridot's new look.

"You shouldn't see me like this!" Peridot hesitates, but she takes a moment to check her outfit. On her face still retains her green visor, and wears a dark green shirt that also covers her neck; with light green pants that look oversized, seeing as they trail Peridot's feet and its knees has star logos on each of them. She has sleeves that start from the end of her shoulders, and they extend until to the end of her hands, only that it's oversized and the remaining length of the sleeves drape from her hands. "Oh, it's actually pretty decent. But anyways, how is everything?" She asks Jasper and then she starts to pull up her sleeves and pants, and as she pulls up her pants, there are socks that resemble the first half of a star.

"Look on what's around you," Jasper crosses her arms, and then she sees Peridot circling around.

"This is a mess! What happened!?" Peridot exclaims as she was shocked by the display.

"We got chased by one of your holograms. It kept destroying everything you love," Steven said.

"Even Lapis!?" Peridot blurts out.

"Psychologically," Lapis replies back, and then she notices something about Peridot's head. "And hey, nice hair."

"What?" Peridot asked, and then she runs towards the nearest mirror, and then turns her head around. "This one also has stars on it!"

"Don't be surprised, it looks good on you, to be honest." Lapis giggles a bit, embarrassing Peridot.

"Don't say that! But I guess it's true," she blushes a bit.

"Okay, enough flirting, because I have one question," Jasper halts them.

"What?" Lapis and Peridot both question her at the same time.

"When are we going to clean this mess?" Jasper closes the door, and then walks towards them.

"Hmmm, we'll have to clean up after I get my limb enhancers back at my room," Peridot points at her limbs, telling them that she still doesn't have her limb enhancers. She runs toward the Gem door, "I'll be back for a moment!" She shouted as she activates the door, and then she barges in without realizing that she ended up on Lapis' room, so she screamed.

"Did she manage to activate the _wrong_ door?" Jasper questions again, still hearing Peridot's cries for help.

"HELP ME!" Peridot flails around in her close friend's room.

"I'll be back for a moment," Lapis runs towards the door, waving at them. "Bye!"

And then she leaves Steven and Jasper to be stuck in the house.

"Did you use your weapon?" Jasper asked, wondering if Steven has summoned his shield lately.

"Yeah, when we were running from the hologram."

"Good, at least you're getting good as Rose Quartz, maybe even better than her," She glances at him and gives a warm smile.

"Really?" his eyes show enthusiasm.

"Yes," Jasper answers as she ruffles his hair, making him laugh.


	17. Lion 2: The Movie

**_Author's Note: I am on an writer's block as of now, and starting this week, I might be too busy to work on my other chapters due to finals, meaning I have to "focus" on my studies. And that_**

 ** _is also the reason why I am struggling with this chapter._**

 ** _But if I manage to get through the school year, I can work on this fanfic series by summer!_**

 ** _Have fun!_**

* * *

Steven and Connie are watching the trailer for Dogcopter, enjoying the preview for the upcoming movie until they hear the Crystal Gems returning from the Warp Pad.

The two kids glance at the Gems, and they are doing different poses. Peridot is dipping Lapis, cradling her close friend's back with her arms, as Lapis makes a slight pucker on her lips with her eyes closed. Jasper, though, is just standing around normally with hands on her hips.

Jasper notices the two gems, and then coughs in order to signal that there are two kids watching them, breaking away their daydreaming, and starting to actually pay attention to them.

"Gah!" Peridot exclaimed as she backs off from Lapis.

"Hey!" Lapis said as she fixes her posing.

"There are _two_ children in front of us!" Jasper reasoned.

"Well, I am sorry," Peridot groans for a bit as she sighs.

As Lapis brushes the dust off herself, she notices Connie. "Oh hey Connie! How's it hanging?" She asks the girl.

"We're preparing to go to the theaters to watch Dogcopter," Connie smiles.

"What is that you call _Dogcopter_?" Peridot asks in curiosity, and then Connie starts showing the video to Peridot.

"Well, it's much more than that." Connie said as the dog from the video barked.

"Oh, so it's a movie then," Peridot taps on her chin, and then Lapis snorts.

"That looks funny!" She said as she covers her mouth to conceal her grin.

"But it's awesome!" Steven insisted. "And Connie promised that this movie's better than any magic!"

"I did _not_ say that," Connie corrects. She sees Steven showcasing on what's on the counter.

"But we also got our own snacks, too!" Steven grins at the Crystal Gems.

"Why is that? Why couldn't you just buy it in the theater?" Peridot questions again.

"She has a point," Jasper added.

"Well, my parents say I am not allowed to buy snacks at the theater," Connie shrugs. "So, we're not buying _anything_ from the theater," and smirks afterwards.

"Well, that's clever," Jasper said. "Now why don't you two go to the theater immediately before these two start to tease you again?" She points at Lapis and Peridot, making them groan in frustration.

" _Jasper_ ," Lapis complained.

"You deserved it," Jasper smirks at her. "Now go," she says to Steven and Connie.

"But how are we going to get there?" Connie asks her.

"You do know Lion, right?" Steven replies back.

"Oh."

"Now, we're gonna travel in style!" Steven shouted enthusiastically, stuffing the snacks in his Cheeseburger Backpack, and then now runs with Connie as he walks outside of the house with her.

The Crystal Gems stand in silence, after they see Steven and Connie leave the house.

"I guess we'll let them have their time in the theater," Peridot then starts to sit on the couch.

"As if you didn't say anything _wrong_ about that," Lapis jokes, making Peridot annoyed, and resulting her into laughing.

"I do not mean _malicious_ intent towards them!" Peridot shouts.

"Hey, I am just joking," Lapis waves her two hands into telling Peridot to calm down.

"You two still flirt with each other even if those kids were around," and Jasper receives another complaint from the two gems.

* * *

Steven shows Connie his new friend, Lion. She was surprised by his feline friend, until she noticed that it hasn't responded to her presence, and it made Steven explain that Lion doesn't attack people. They now both get on Lion and Steven commands him to move them to the theaters, but he doesn't budge. He was confused by the fact that Lion doesn't respond to him, until Connie tried to reason. This gets Lion to make them move to a hidden cave that contains an armory and a Pink Pedestal on the middle, bearing Rose Quartz's symbol.

Connie asks Steven on what is on the pedestal, and then Steven responds by shrugging as he puts his hand on the pink pedestal, and it makes him worry as his hand is now actually stuck. Connie tries to assist him get his hand off the pedestal, but she discovers that a weapon summons every time she tries to help him. Steven laughs as he pokes his nose, and other types of weapons also summon. They keep doing this until they start to see a giant penny.

"Why would someone put a giant penny in there? And is it worth more than a regular penny?" Connie asks as she points at it.

"I guess it would make _cents_?" Steven grins, and they both laugh.

However, Connie gets a bit lonely, "This is great, but… I feel like I'm not supposed to be here."

"I want you here!" Steven attempts to reassure her, but he corrects himself. "I mean, I don't want you _here_. I guess Lion wants us _here_. But _I_ want us to be at the movies! And I want to see a lot of _explosions!_ " He starts to imitate the sound of explosions, which makes Connie chuckle for a bit.

Unfortunately, the word _explosions_ made it summon a huge robot, starting to change colours, and then it turns to red as it faces towards Steven and Connie.

"Run!" Connie shouted as she pulled Steven off the pedestal successfully, and they dodged the fire blast. The robot changes colour, and starts to fire an ice blast next to them. "We have to split up!" She shouts as she runs to the other direction.

"Connie!" He shouts back, and then attempts to run away from the robot, but he trips instead.

Connie hears what happened to Steven, and then she runs towards him, calling his name in worry. She runs towards him, and she is about to pick him up, with the constant threat that there's a dangerous robot chasing them…

…Until Lion grabs both of them and opens up a portal leading to the theaters.

After a few moments, they drop on the ground, and they notice that they are already outside the theater.

"What? Now you take us to the movies!?" Steven raises his arms in frustration and annoyance.

What Lion responded is that he sat down, causing Steven and Connie to slide off him.

They both get up, but Connie touches the side of her face and groans in pain. Steven notices that she is hurt, and then he pulls out a soda can from his backpack, and passes it to Connie.

"Sorry, they're not that cold," he frowned, but he was surprised that Connie accepted it anyways.

"Thanks," She smiles at him, and she presses it on her cheek. Steven does the same with his soda can.

"Well, we're here. Shall we go in?" He smiles at her, but Connie frowns instead and then looks down.

"That's okay. L-let's just forget about it." She weakly declined, and it made Steven surprised.

"Huh?" He was confused as he reaches a hand towards Connie. "I-I'm sorry. I ruined _everything_ , didn't I? I don't know why you hang out with me. I mess up all the time."

Connie was surprised by what he said, so she spoke up. "I'm so much more... less interesting than you! And obviously you have some sort of magical destiny. Why would you even care about something like Dogcopter?"

"Why?! Because it's Dogcopter! He's a dog and a helicopter and a cop! He shoots missiles out of his butt, and he's gonna save the world!" He shows his look of excitement, full of stars. "Dogcopter is very cool and important... to me."

"Well… I'm no Dogcopter," Connie looks ashamed as she still looks downwards.

They hear an explosion behind them, as the car blows up into bits.

"What the!?" Steven exclaims as he stands up and turns around, and he sees Lion snarling at the portal.

"Oh no!" Connie is worried by the display infront of them.

It is the same robot, which is now stuck in Lion's portal struggling to get out of it.

"It's the robot shooty thing from awhile ago!" Steven shouted as the robot begins to glow in different colours. "How are we supposed to beat it?" He turns to Lion. "What do we do?"

Lion responds back by making his eyes and mane glow, and he leans down until his head is near the ground, and a sword with Rose Quartz's symbol on the hilt, sticks out of his forehead.

Steven was awestruck by the display, and then he begins to pull it out of Lion's head. "Uh, this is weird, right?" He fully pulls it up and holds it above his head, and he has a full display of the sword's appearance. "You have a sword in your head!? Why didn't you tell me you can do these things you do!?

Before Lion could snarl, the robot now gets through the portal, and it is on a rampage.

"It came through!" Connie exclaimed. The robot starts shooting different types of element balls at different directions, causing damage to the environment around them.

The robot keeps shooting at the environment, and Steven isn't sure of what is Lion's intention of giving him the sword.

"What do I do with this!?" Steven questioned Lion, and Connie notices that a fireball is moving towards Steven.

"Steven!" She cried out as she runs towards him, and then starts to guide his hand as she deflects the fireball.

The fireball went back towards the robot, and they were both surprised by the counterattack, so they started using the same tactic.

"Forehand…" They both said in unison as they deflect an iceball.

"Backhand…" They do the same with the fireball.

"Overhand… _Death Strike!"_ They both shouted as they slash downwards, making contact with the ball infront of them, and they struggle to deflect it. However, they managed to deflect it with every ounce of their strength, causing the ball to return back to the robot's barrel, where it usually shoots.

It starts to malfunction, and then it explodes into bits.

They both stare at the display, awestruck that they managed to defeat the robot together.

"Tennis practice…" Connie whispered as she smiles.

"…Magical destiny practice," Steven added, grinning this time.

After they finish looking at the display, they now order 3 tickets for the movie, and they also include Lion to watch the movie with them. The lady in the ticket booth is surprised by the whole display, especially by the fact that there's a huge, pink Lion behind them.

"Um, do you have a rewards card?" was all what the lady said, despite the mess that happened awhile ago. The kids (and Lion) now get to watch inside the theater.

* * *

Steven and Connie are already finished with watching Dogcopter, and they return back to his house, seeing Lapis and Peridot talk to each other. Lapis was the one to point out the two kids, and Peridot looks at them.

"What happened to you two!?" was the first thing she said when she ran towards Steven and Connie.

"We got attacked by a robot-looking thing on our way to the theater." Connie answered as she glances at her small scar on her arm. "But it isn't too much," she reassures Peridot.

"You still need repairs," Peridot said.

"I think you mean healing for _both_ of them," Lapis corrected Peridot.

"I'm trying to focus here," Peridot growled at her, and then she glanced at her friend's direction. "Remember when to be serious next time."

"Fine, calm down." Lapis said as Peridot starts treating Steven and Connie's wounds.

As Peridot is almost done treating their wounds, Jasper returns from the Warp Pad.

"So, how was the trip?" She asked the kids.

"We got attacked, but we managed to destroy it." Connie shrugs it off with a wave.

"We also got Lion to watch with us!" Steven grins, and Lapis laughs.

"Really?"

"Yeah, even the lady on the booth was surprised about it," Connie answers back.

"That is a pretty risky move for Lion to be in there. It could scare humans in there," Peridot said as she is finished treating Connie's wounds.

"No one was in the theater, except us," Connie replied back.

"And Lion!" Steven grins again.

"You already said that," Peridot corrects him, and Steven realizes.

"Okay," he replied back, and she sighs.

"Was Lion still a threat?" Peridot asks Steven and Connie.

"Not really, but there were some people who were a bit worried about him being around." Connie replied back.

"He doesn't hurt anyone, though." Steven added.

"Also that," Connie agreed.

"Hmmm…" was all what Peridot said, and she was all done fixing up Steven and Connie's wounds. "I think you two can do motor functions properly, without sustaining any kinds of injuries."

"Motor what?" Lapis teased.

"Oh shut up."

Connie hears her phone ringing, and she picks it up from her pocket, and she has a text message. "Oh, my parents told me to go home."

"Do you still need our help?" Jasper asked.

"No thanks. I can do it on my own," Connie kindly declines the offer, and she goes outside the house. "Thanks, Steven!" She said before she left the house, leaving the Crystal Gems alone.

"So, wanna hang out in my room, Peridot?" Lapis smiles at her close friend.

"Well, given that I won't be doing anything, yes." Peridot said as she follows Lapis Lazuli to the Gem Door.

Unfortunately for Peridot, Lapis Lazuli began to giggle, knowing what they are about to do.

"Lapis, don't let them know!" Peridot blushes as she tries to silence Lapis, and notices that Jasper is smiling at both of them.

"What are they going to do?" Steven asks Jasper with innocent curiosity.

"Don't bother," Jasper replied back, and she lets Peridot and Lapis get away as they go inside the room (Lapis' room, specifically), also leaving them alone in the living room. "They'll be happy with each other for a while."

"Oh, okay." And then Steven left the rest of the Crystal Gems for a while, as he walked upwards to the stairs to his bedroom, and played with his video games and read manga for the rest of the day.


End file.
